ur--or, in other words, during the last
two hundred and fifty years--such has been the general course of things
in this country. The hardest tasks have been taken by man, and a
generous tenderness has been shown to women in many of the details of
social life, pervading all classes of society, to a degree beyond what
is customary even in the most civilized countries of Europe. Taking
these two facts together--that certain abuses still exist, that certain
laws and regulations need changing and that, as a general rule,
American women have thus far been treated by their countrymen with
especial consideration, in a legal and in a social sense--the inference
becomes perfectly plain. A formidable and very dangerous social
revolution is not needed to correct remaining abuses. Any revolution
aiming at upsetting the existing relations of the sexes--relations
going back to the earliest records and traditions of the race--can not
be called less than formidable and dangerous. Let women make full use
of the influences already at their command, and all really needed
changes may be effected by means both sure and safe--means already
thoroughly tried. Let them use all the good sense, all the information,
all the eloquence, and, if they please, all the wit, at their command
when talking over these abuses in society. Let them state their views,
their needs, their demands, in conscientiously written papers. Let them
appeal for aid to the best, the wisest, the most respected men of the
country, and the result is certain. Choose any one real, existing abuse
as a test of the honesty and the liberality of American men toward the
women of the country, and we all know before-hand what shall be the
result.[1]

{FOOTNOTE by SFC} [1] There is an injustice in the present law of
guardianship in the State of New York, which may be named as one of
those abuses which need reformation. A woman can not now, in the State
of New York, appoint a guardian for her child, even though its father
be dead. The authority for appointing a guardian otherwise than by the
courts is derived from the Revised statutes, p. 1, title 3, chapter 8,
part 2, and that passage gives the power to the father only. The mother
is not named. It has been decided in the courts that a mother can not
make this appointment--12 Howard's Practical Reports, 532. This is
certainly very unjust and very unwise. But let any dozen women of
respectability take the matter in hand, and, by the me