The Silver State

WOMAN'S RIGHTS.
What Rev. G. W. Fitch has to say On the Subject.
The Sunday evening discourses of Rev. Mr. Fitch draw large congregations to the M. E. Church. Last evening the Church was filled to hear his views on "Woman's Rights." Taking for his text 1st Peter III--1-6, he said:

"The public mind is agitated by those questions which involve the rights and interests of woman. This restlessness is of English origin, and, at first, only sought for remedies against evils which surrounded those women who were alone and unprotected, and against whom society was perpetually practicing the greatest injustice. At length the question of woman's sphere, her capabilities and comparative worth as a laborer when placed side by side with man in the industries of life, were discussed, and the movement has now passed into the Woman's Rights agitation.

From just demands in behalf of woman, for enlarged means of independent livelihood, with which all ought to sympathize, the leaders of this agitation now claim everything that society allows to man--from pantaloons and latch keys to seats in the Legislature. The effort now is to clothe woman with all the attributes and responsibilities of manhood. But happily the large majority of the female sex are not quarreling with Providence because they were not made men. They are rather thanking God that the sweet shelter of a husband's manly affection is theirs and theirs also the dear privilege of refining and adorning home for his sake. God himself decided what should be woman's mission when he made her to be a help-mate for man. He did not make her man's inferior, nor his slave nor drudge, but his assistant, companion, help mate. Woman's mission is not to be found in the domain of civil government. The scriptures place the right of authority and government, both in the family and civil society, in the man, who is to rule in fidelity and love, as Christ rules his church. This law of God and nature is opposed to-day by many who are clamoring for the right of female suffrage. They would drag woman to the ballot box and into the arena of political strife. They would stir up dissension in the family and array husband and wife against each other.

We oppose this demand, first, on social grounds. I admit that the women of our country, taken as a whole, are as competent to vote as men are, while very many are better fitted than some men are, to whom this right is extended. But, notwithstanding this, it would completely revolutionize society; it would entirely change the status of the two sexes. Woman may have the right to be a man, but she cannot be a man and woman too. If she steps out of her place and demands to be and do what men do--to enter the political strife and contend for office with men, she must not expect to be treated with all that tenderness due to woman.

If it be said that she would not become the rival and competitor of man, but rather his companion and co-worker, then the demand is not for free suffrage and means nothing but the right to vote according to the wishes and opinions of her husband. In this sense she is now represented. This demand, however, means the right to think and vote as she pleases; the right to go to the polls and nullify the vote of her husband, father and brother. It means the right to meet in caucus, publish political papers and favor and denounce political measures according to her own views. In a word, to use all the methods of political intrigue and chicanery to carry her points, whether they harmonize with the views of her male representative or not.

"We demand," they say, "that the word male be struck out of all State constitutions, and that females be admitted to every right, privilege and responsibility now enjoyed by men."

How long could this political antagonism, in view and action, exist between the sexes without revolutionizing society? Woman, herself, would suffer the most by it. Being in her true sphere, the conservator of our social life, when she gets out of her sphere all society suffers. When she assumes the responsibilities of man, she forfeits her womanly position and influence.

When she becomes the political thinker, schemer, debater and agitator, then is she degraded beyond all precedent. The turbulence, corruption and obscene strifes of political contests would destroy the purest feminine character, and a bad woman is ten times worse than a bad man. Fired with the demon of ambition, when she once lays aside that peculiar character which God has given her for a glory and a crowning, and attempts to assume the character and play the part of a man, instead of raising manhood to the skies, she only sinks it to the level of the brute or demon. The Bible furnishes two notable examples: Jezebel, and her daughter Athalia, for whom no child was ever named; tried to make themselves men, and succeeded only in making themselves fiends, and their example is as full of warning as it is of woe. Let not American women be filled with a miserable ambition to be and do like men. Remember, she is human--susceptible to temptation and no stronger than man, and sad will it be for society when she exchanges the all-pervading influence of retired, refined and modest womanhood for the masculine boldness, forwardness and coarseness of the modern political woman.

But it is asked: Since women are governed, why should they not share in the government? and since they have property and pay taxes, why should they not vote? These questions are the offspring of the sheerest individualism, and an entire misconception of what is meant by representation in the State. Man and woman together make a complete and perfect unity, and by blending their various natures and capabilities they create, develop and perpetuate human society--and these two are one. Representation and government are based upon this unity. Civil government is not for the individual, but for society; and the unit in society is not the individual, but the family. This unit is represented always and everywhere in our Government when the husband and the father utters the voice of the family at the polls and in the councils of the nation.

Women do vote. They are represented in the most effective way. They vote as all our people vote, for President. They choose their elector, or he is provided for them by one of the most precious ordinances of God and nature --marriage. The husband votes for the wife and the father for his unmarried daughters as he does for his minor sons. If the wife and daughters cannot continue to repose this trust in the husband and father, then woe to such families, and woe to the land composed of such families. When the domestic foundation becomes as rotten as this it makes but little difference what the Government is or who administers it.

As to those who are widows and own property and pay taxes, it is a misfortune, perhaps, that the property does not vote; but not so great a misfortune as to have the sex go out of their sphere and enter political life. Woman's Empire is her home; and her God-given mission is to be mother and fosterer of all the character of our race. Let her be the Queen of home--its center, its light and glory. Home is the bulwark of society, and woman its Divinely appointed guardian. May Heaven help us when woman shall abandon this sacred trust! O, do not drag her down from her noble sphere of usefulness and power. Do not make her, from the highest form of beauty, a hateful monstrosity--a thing of loathing and disgust, by disrobing her of her womanly nature and clothing her with the attributes of man. No! Let her be woman still. Cherish her, love her, protect her; but let her still be wife, mother, sister. Turn not her loving companionship into strife, discord and disgust. Leave, O, leave us home-- sweetest word in human language, and type of Heaven; and home we cannot have without woman in her true sphere, unsoiled and undegraded. Woman already has more power in home and social life, in morality and religion, than man. She needs not the ballot box and public office to make her the controlling power in society. She is that by her nature; office and influence as woman.

Woman's Rights! Man now worships at her feet, and she rules the world. There is nothing now antagonistic between the two sexes. There is no true and vital interest of the women of this land that is not dear to the men of this land. Never was she held in higher estimation than to-day, and I am here as her defender and advocate; her defender from the libellous attacks of the Woodhulls, these foul disseminators of untramelled licentiousness-- women who are so bankrupt in moral character as to be excluded from respectable society. The time has not come when our Christianity or our Christian families and statesmen shall receive instructions in morals, politics or religion from such wandering harlots, Spiritualists, free-lovers, levellers and infidels--these strong-minded women who are followed by weak minded men, and whose quarrel is with the sacred institution of marriage. God save us from such female monstrosities."