The result of the election is not
the victory or defeat of the man alone; it is the triumph or prostration
of a principle or purpose with which the family is identified.
Is it said that there is occasionally, if not frequently, a divided
judgment in the household upon those questions that are decided by the
ballot? This must, of course, be granted as an exceptional condition of
domestic life; but, for the wisest reasons of public policy, whose
avoidance by the state would be treachery to humanity, the law universal
can recognize only the general condition of things. So, and for kindred
but not equally strong reasons, the elective franchise is exercised by
men without families, and denied to those women who by the dispensations
of Divine Providence are called to preside in homes where the father's
face is seen no more. But why, in the eye of the state, shall the man
stand as the head of the family, rather than the woman? Because God has
so ordained it; and no civil community has ever yet escaped from the
force of His decree in this respect. Those whose physical power defends
the nation, or tribe, or family, are naturally called upon to decide
what the means of defence shall be. Is not woman, then, the equal of
man? We cannot say of woman, with reference to man, that she is his
superior, or his inferior, or his equal; nor can we say of man, with
reference to woman, that he is her superior, or her inferior, or her
equal.
Pages:
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198