Part 22

“Those who wish the Roman Catholic Church to subvert our school system, control legislation, and become a mighty political force, cannot do better than labor day and night for woman suffrage. This, it is true, is opposed to every principle and tradition of that great church, which nevertheless would reap from it immense benefits. The priests have little influence over a considerable part of their male flock; but their power is great over the women, who would repair to the polls at the word of command, with edifying docility and zeal.”—FRANCIS PARKMAN _on “The Woman Question” in North American Review_, September, 1879.

I am surprised that a man like Mr. Parkman, who has done so much to vindicate the share of Roman Catholic priests and laymen in the early settlement of this continent, should have introduced this paragraph into a serious discussion of what he himself recognizes as an important question. Here is the case. One-half the citizens of every State are unrepresented in the government: the ordinary means of republican influence are withheld from them, as they are from idiots and criminals. It is the rights and claims of these women, as women, that statesmanship has to consider. Whether their enfranchisement will help the nation or the race, as a whole, is legitimate matter for argument. Whether their votes will temporarily tell for this or that party or sect, is a wholly subordinate matter, that ought not to be obtruded into a serious debate. If republican government is not strong enough to stand on its own principles, if its fundamental theory must be interpreted and modified so that it shall work for or against a particular church or class of citizens, then it is a worse failure than even Mr. Parkman represents it. The “woman question,” whenever it is settled, must be settled on its own merits, with no more reference to Roman Catholics, as such, than to Mormons or Chinese. Having said this before, when advocates of woman suffrage were presenting the movement as an anti-Catholic movement, I can consistently repeat it now, when the movement is charged with being unconsciously pro-Catholic in its tendencies. It is not its business to be for or against any religion: its business is with principles.

The paragraph throws needless odium on a large and an inseparable portion of the community,—the Roman Catholics. “Aliens to our blood and race!” cried indignantly the orator Shiel, in the House of Commons, when some one had thus characterized the Irish. “Heavens! have I not, upon the battle-field, seen those aliens do their duty to England?” It is too soon after the great civil war to stigmatize, even by implication, a class on whom we were then glad to call. Whole regiments of Roman Catholics were then called into the service; Roman Catholic chaplains were commissioned, than whom none did their duty better, or in a less sectarian spirit. In case of another war, all these would be summoned to duty again. We have no right, in reasoning on American institutions, to treat this religious element as something by itself, an alien member, not to be assimilated, virtually antagonistic to republican government. It has never proved to be so in Switzerland, where about half the cantons are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, and yet the federal union is preserved, and the republican feeling is as strong in these cantons as in any other.

No doubt there would be great objections to the domination of any single religious body, and the more thorough its organization the worse; but this is an event in the last degree improbable in any State of the Union. It is doubtful if even the Roman Catholic Church will ever again be relatively so powerful as in the early years of our government, when it probably had a majority of the population in three States,—Maryland, Louisiana, and Kentucky,—whereas now it has lost it in all. It may be many years before we again see, as we saw for a quarter of a century, a Roman Catholic chief justice of the United States (Taney). If we ever see this church come into greater power, it will be because it shows, as in England, such tact and discretion and moderation as to disarm opposition, and earn the right to influence. The common feeling and prejudice of American people is, and is likely to remain, overwhelmingly against it; and none know this better than the Roman Catholic priests themselves. They know very well that nothing would more exasperate this feeling than to marshal women to the polls like sheep; and this alone would prevent their doing it, were there no other obstacle.

The abolitionists used to say that the instinct of any class of oppressors was infallible, and that if the slaveholders, for instance, dreaded a certain policy, that policy was the wise one for the slaves. If the priests are such oppressors as Mr. Parkman thinks, they must have the instinct of that class; and their present unanimous opposition to woman suffrage is sufficient proof that it promises no good to them. How easy it is to misinterpret their policy, has been shown in the school suffrage matter. It was confidently stated that a certain priest in the city where I live, had demanded from the pulpit a certain sum—two thousand dollars—to pay the poll-taxes for women voters. Most people believed it; yet, when it came to the point, not a Roman Catholic woman applied for assessment. It will be thus with Mr. Parkman’s fears. Women will ultimately vote,—as indeed, he seems rather to expect; and the effect will be to make them more intelligent, and therefore less likely to obey the will of any man. Roman Catholic men are learning to think for themselves; and the best way to make women do so is to treat them as intelligent and responsible beings.

CI. DANGEROUS VOTERS.

One of the few plausible objections brought against women’s voting is this: that it would demoralize the suffrage by letting in very dangerous voters; that virtuous women would not vote, and vicious women would. It is a very unfounded alarm.

For, in the first place, our institutions rest—if they have any basis at all—on this principle, that good is stronger than evil, that the majority of men really wish to vote rightly, and that only time and patience are needed to get the worst abuses righted. How any one can doubt this, who watches the course of our politics, I do not see. In spite of the great disadvantage of having masses of ignorant foreign voters to deal with,—and of native black voters, who have been purposely kept in ignorance,—we certainly see wrongs gradually righted, and the truth by degrees prevail. Even the one great, exceptional case of New York City has been reached at last; and the very extent of the evil has brought its own cure. Now, why should this triumph of good over evil be practicable among men, and not apply to women also?

It must be either because women, as a class, are worse than men,—which will hardly be asserted,—or because, for some special reason, bad women have an advantage over good women such as has no parallel in the other sex. But I do not see how this can be. Let us consider.

It is certain that good women are not less faithful and conscientious than good men. It is generally admitted that those most opposed to suffrage will very soon, on being fully enfranchised, feel it their duty to vote. They may at first misuse the right through ignorance, but they certainly will not shirk it. It is this conscientious habit on which I rely without fear. Never yet, when public duty required, have American women failed to meet the emergency; and I am not afraid of it now. Moreover, when they are once enfranchised and their votes are needed, all the men who now oppose or ridicule the demand for suffrage will begin to help them to exercise it. When the wives are once enfranchised, you may be sure that the husbands will not neglect those of their own household: they will provide them with ballots, vehicles, and policemen, and will contrive to make the voting-places pleasanter than many parlors, and quieter than some churches.

On the other hand, it seems altogether probable that the very worst women, so far from being ostentatious in their wickedness upon election-day, will, on the contrary, so disguise and conceal themselves as to deceive the very elect, and, if it were possible, the very policemen. For whatever party they may vote, they will contribute to make the voting-places as orderly as railway-stations. These covert ways are the very habit of their lives, at least by daylight; and the women who have of late done the most conspicuous and open mischief in our community have done it, not in their true character as evil, but, on the contrary, under a mask of elevated purpose.

That women, when they vote, will commit their full share of errors, I have always maintained. But that they will collectively misuse their power, seems to me out of the question; and that the good women are going to stay at home, and let bad women do the voting, appears quite as incredible. In fact, if they do thus, it is a fair question whether the epithets “good” and “bad” ought not, politically speaking, to change places. For it naturally occurs to every one, on election-day, that the man who votes, even if he votes wrong, is really a better man, so far as political duties go, than the very loftiest saint who stays at home and prays that other people may vote right. And it is hard to see why it should be otherwise with women.

CII. HOW WOMEN WILL LEGISLATE.

It is often said, that, when women vote, their votes will make no difference in the count, because they will merely duplicate the votes of their husbands and brothers. Then these same objectors go on and predict all sorts of evil things, for which women will vote, quite apart from their husbands and brothers. Moreover, the evils thus predicted are apt to be diametrically opposite. Thus Goldwin Smith predicts that women will be governed by priests, and then goes on to predict that women will vote to abolish marriage; not seeing, that, as Professor Cairnes has pointed out, these two predictions destroy each other.

On the other hand, I think that the advocates of woman suffrage often err by claiming too much,—as that all women will vote for peace, for total abstinence, against slavery, and the rest. It seems better to rest the argument on general principles, and not to seek to prophesy too closely. The only thing which I feel safe in predicting is, that woman suffrage will be used, as it should be, for the protection of woman. Self-respect and self-protection,—these are, as has been already said, the two great things for which woman needs the ballot.

It is not the nature of things, I take it, that a class politically subject can obtain justice from the governing class. Not the least of the benefits gained by political equality for the colored people of the South is, that the laws now generally make no difference of color in penalties for crime. In slavery times, there were dozens of crimes which were punished more severely by the statute if committed by a slave or a free negro, than if done by a white. I feel very sure that under the reign of impartial suffrage we should see fewer such announcements as this, which I cut from a late New York “Evening Express:”—

“Last night Capt. Lowery, of the Twenty-seventh Precinct, made a descent upon the dance-house in the basement of 96 Greenwich Street, and arrested fifty-two men and eight women. The entire batch was brought before Justice Flammer, at the Tombs Police Court, this morning. Louise Maud, the proprietress, was held in five hundred dollars bail to answer at the Court of General Sessions. _The fifty-two men were fined three dollars each, all but twelve paying at once; and the eight women were fined ten dollars each, and sent to the Island for one month._”

The Italics are my own. When we reflect that this dance-house, whatever it was, was unquestionably sustained for the gratification of men, rather than of women; when we consider that every one of these fifty-two men came there, in all probability, by his own free will, and to spend money, not to earn it; and that the undoubted majority of the women were driven there by necessity or betrayal, or force or despair,—it would seem that even an equal punishment would have been cruel injustice to the women. But when we observe how trifling a penalty was three dollars each to these men, whose money was sure to go for riotous living in some form, and forty of whom had the amount of the fine in their pockets; and how hopelessly large an amount was ten dollars each to women who did not, probably, own even the clothes they wore, and who were to be sent to prison for a month in addition,—we see a kind of injustice which would stand a fair chance of being righted, I suspect, if women came into power. Not that they would punish their own sex less severely; probably they would not: but they would put men more on a level as to the penalty.

It may be said that no such justice is to be expected from women; because women in what is called “society” condemn women for mere imprudence, and excuse men for guilt. But it must be remembered, that in “society” guilt is rarely a matter of open proof and conviction, in case of men: it is usually a matter of surmise; and it is easy for either love or ambition to set the surmise aside, and to assume that the worst reprobate is “only a little wild.” In fact, as Margaret Fuller pointed out years ago, how little conception has a virtuous woman as to what a dissipated young man really is! But let that same woman be a Portia, in the judgment-seat, or even a legislator or a voter, and let her have the unmistakable and actual offender before her, and I do not believe that she will excuse him for a paltry fine, and give the less guilty woman a penalty more than quadruple.

Women will also be sure to bring special sympathy and intelligent attention to the wrongs of children. Who can read without shame and indignation this report from “The New York Herald”?

THE CHILD-SELLING CASE.

Peter Hallock, committed on a charge of abducting Lena Dinser, a young girl thirteen years old, whom, it was alleged, her father, George Dinser, had sold to Hallock for purposes of prostitution, was again brought yesterday before Judge Westbrook in the Supreme Court Chambers, on the writ of habeas-corpus previously obtained by Mr. William F. Howe, the prisoner’s counsel. Mr. Howe claimed that Hallock could not be held on either section of the statute for abduction. Under the first section the complaint, he insisted, should set forth that the child was taken contrary to the wish and against the consent of her parents. On the contrary, the evidence, he urged, showed that the father was a willing party. Under the second section, it was contended that the prisoner could not be held, as there was no averment that the girl was of previous chaste character. Judge Westbrook, a brief counter argument having been made by Mr. Dana, held that the points of Mr. Howe were well taken, and ordered the prisoner’s discharge.

Here was a father, who, as the newspapers allege, had previously sold two other daughters, body and soul, and against whom the evidence seemed to be in this case clear. Yet through the defectiveness of the statute, or the remissness of the prosecuting attorney, he goes free, without even a trial, to carry on his infamous traffic for other children. Grant that the points were technically well taken and irresistible,—though this is by no means certain,—it is very sure that there should be laws that should reach such atrocities with punishment, whether the father does or does not consent to his child’s ruin; and that public sentiment should compel prosecuting officers to be as careful in framing their indictments where human souls are at stake as where the question is of dollars only. It is upon such matters that the influence of women will make itself felt in legislation.

CIII. WARNED IN TIME.

As a reform advances, it draws in more and more people who are not immaculate. Such people are often found, indeed, among the very pioneers of reform; and their number naturally increases as the reform grows popular. The larger a coral island grows, the more driftwood attaches itself; and the coral insects might as well stipulate that every floating log should be sound and stanch, as a reform that all its converts should be in the highest degree reputable. We expect, sooner or later, to be in the majority. But we certainly do not expect to find all that majority saints.

Yet many good people are constantly distressing themselves, and writing letters of remonstrance, public or private, to editors, because this or that unscrupulous person chooses to join our army. If we select that person for a general, we are doubtless to be held responsible; but for nothing else. People may indeed say—and justly—that every such ally brings suspicion upon us. Very likely; then we must work harder to avert suspicion. People may urge that no reform was ever watched so anxiously as this, for its effect on female character especially, and that a single discreditable instance may do incalculable harm. No doubt. And yet, after all, we are to work with human means and under human limitations; and God accomplishes much good in this world through rather poor instruments—such as you and me.

I have no manner of doubt that the great majority of those who take up this movement will do it from tolerably pure motives, and will, on the whole, do credit to it by their personal demeanor. But of course there will be exceptions,—hypocrites, self-seekers, and black sheep generally. Horace Mann used to say that the clergy were, on the whole, pure men; but that some of the worst men in every age and place were always found among the clergy also,—taking that disguise as a cloak for wickedness. For “clergy” in this case read “reformers.”

And there is this special good done, in a reform, by the sinners who take hold of it, that they warn us in time that all reform is limited by the imperfections of average humanity. The theory of the Roman Catholic Church is a sublime one,—that every pope should be a saint; but it is limited by the practical difficulty of securing a sufficient supply of the article. So it is with the woman suffrage movement. “Would it not be desirable,” write enthusiastic correspondents, “that every woman in this sacred enterprise should have a heart free from guile?” Perhaps not. The plan looks attractive certainly; but would there not be this objection, that, could you enlist this regiment of perfect beings, they would give a very false impression of the sex for which they stand? If women are not all saints,—if they are capable, like men, of selfishness and ambition, malice and falsehood,—it is of great importance that we should be warned in time. Better see their faults now, and enfranchise them with our eyes open, than enfranchise them as angels, and then be dismayed when they turn out to be human beings.

There is no use in carrying this reform, or any other, on mistaken expectations. Multitudes of persons are looking to woman suffrage, mainly as a means of elevating politics. Every woman who awakens distrust or contempt damps the ardor of these persons. It is a misfortune that they should be discouraged; but, if they have idealized woman too much, they may as well be disenchanted first as last. Woman does not need the ballot chiefly that she may take it in her hands, and elevate man; but she needs it primarily for her own defence, just as men need it. Which will use it best, who can say? Women are doubtless less sensual than men; but the sensual vices are the very least of the vices that corrupt our politics. Selfishness, envy, jealousy, vanity, cowardice, bigotry, caste-prejudice, recklessness of assertion,—these are the traits that demoralize our public men. Is there any reason to believe that women are, on the whole, more free from these? If not, we may as well know it by visible, though painful, examples. Knowing it, we may take a reasonable view of woman, and legislate for her as she is. I do not believe with Mrs. Croly, that “women are nearly all treacherous and cruel to each other;” but I believe that they are, as Gen. Saxton described the negroes, “intensely human,” and that we may as well be warned of this in time.

CIV. INDIVIDUALS _vs._ CLASSES.

As the older arguments against woman suffrage are abandoned, we hear more and more of the final objection, that the majority of women have not yet expressed themselves on the subject. It is common for such reasoners to make the remark, that if they knew a given number of women—say fifty, or a hundred, or five hundred—who honestly wished to vote, they would favor it. Produce that number of unimpeachable names, and they say that they have reconsidered the matter, and must demand more,—perhaps ten thousand. Bring ten thousand, and the demand again rises. “Prove that the majority of women wish to vote, and they shall vote.”—“Precisely,” we say: “give us a chance to prove it by taking a vote;” and they answer, “By no means.”

And, in a certain sense, they are right. It ought not to be settled that way,—by dealing with woman as a class, and taking the vote. The agitators do not merely claim the right of suffrage for her as a class: they claim it for each individual woman, without reference to any other. Class legislation—as Mary Ann in Bret Harte’s “Lothaw” says of Brook Farm—“is a thing of the past.” If there is only one woman in the nation who claims the right to vote, she ought to have it.

In Oriental countries all legislation is for classes, and in England it is still mainly so. A man is expected to remain in the station in which he is born; or, if he leaves it, it is by a distinct process, and he comes under the influence, in various ways, of different laws. If the iniquities of the “Contagious Diseases” act in England, for instance, had not been confined in their legal application to the lower social grades, the act would never have passed. It was easy for men of the higher classes to legislate away the modesty of women of the lower classes; but if the daughter of an earl could have been arrested, and submitted to a surgical examination at the will of any policeman, as the daughter of a mechanic now can, the law would not have stood a day. So, through all our slave States, there was class legislation for every person of negro blood: the laws of crime, of punishment, of testimony, were all adapted to classes, not individuals. Emancipation swept this all away, in most cases: classes ceased to exist before the law, so far as men at least were concerned; there were only individuals. The more progress, the less class in legislation. We claim the application of this principle as rapidly as possible to women.

Our community does not refuse permission for women to go unveiled till it is proved that the majority of women desire it; it does not even ask that question: if one woman wishes to show her face, it is allowed. If a woman wishes to travel alone, to walk the streets alone, the police protects her in that liberty. She is not thrust back into her house with the reproof, “My dear madam, at this particular moment the overwhelming majority of women are indoors: prove that they all wish to come out, and you shall come.” On the contrary, she comes forth at her own sweet will: the policeman helps her tenderly across the street, and waves back with imperial gesture the obtrusive coal-cart. Some of us claim for each individual woman, in the same way, not merely the right to go shopping, but to go voting; not merely to show her face, but to show her hand.