its beatings, and did not attempt to correct
God's handiwork by their own futile attempts at improvement.

Mr. STEWART.--Mr. President, I listened to the speech of the
Senator from Delaware with great attention; I appreciate his
feelings on the subject; and it has occasioned me to have some
reflection upon this subject during the time he was speaking. I
want to call the attention of the Senator from Delaware and of
the Senate and of the country to a few facts in regard to this
matter of woman's rights, and to see whether it has not been well
to change some of the ancient order of things. There was a time
among our Anglo-Saxon fathers when it was seriously discussed in
the law-books what size the whip should be with which a husband
could properly chastise his wife. If it was no larger than the
thumb, I believe no action would lie. Those were the good old
times, and those times you can see illustrated to-day all over
the world where savages----

Mr. SARGENT.--That was when we were near to nature.

Mr. STEWART.--Yes; that was when man held sway, and when God's
law of man's supremacy was omnipotent! Then harmony was
preserved. If you will go out into my State and see the Indian
women carrying the loads on their backs and the men riding on
horses, and the women doing the work, you will see the harmony of
the supremacy of man! Now, I undertake to say that there is no
surer criterion of the civilization of any nation than the
position which woman occupies; and the less dependent she is, the
more she has to do with the management of society, the more she
is regarded as an individual, the higher that society stands; but
where she depends exclusively on man and man's justice, there you
have absolute barbarism. Do you think that women have been less
loyal to their husbands, do you think that virtue has been less
protected in this country since the rights of women were
vindicated by the law, since they were entitled to hold property?
Have they not been as good wives as they were formerly? Has
society been injured thereby? Show me the nation that elevates
its women and acknowledges their rights and protects them by the
law and severs them in point of protection from the caprice or
the sympathy of men--show me that nation, and that nation shall
be