presented in man,
only more so. When he eats, she eats; when he thinks, she thinks; when
he gets drunk, she gets drunk; that it would be as absurd to provide
for the board and education of one's own shadow as to provide a
separate establishment for woman, who possesses all things, enjoys all
things, and sways all things in man, as fully as though she did it
herself. And a single woman, or widow, may pay taxes, but it would be
outrageous for her to have a choice in the men who are to spend the
money and then cry out for more. When married, ten years ago, her
education was equal to her husband's, now she can not write a
grammatical letter: her husband's mind has been enlarged by the influx
of new ideas, and by contacts with the electric atmosphere of thought
in the great world without; but denied as she has been the right of
expressing her will by a direct vote, she has lost all interest in
passing events; the globe has dwindled to a half-acre lot and the
village church. Her partner finds the match unequal, spends his time
with more congenial society, and is out-and-out in favor of Moses' law
of a galloping divorce. The old stager has filled the political arena
with frauds and brawls, and bruises and blood; and having levelled the
morals of the ballot-box with those of the race-ground or box-ring, he
has yet virtue enough left to declare that woman shall not enter this
moral Aceldama.

"Yet it may be that democracy, for self-preservation, will be
compelled to invite women to the ballot-box, to restrain and overawe
the ruffianism of man. Though man smiles with secret derision at the
competition of woman, in dress and show, yet he is too tender of her
reputation to allow her the same field with himself wherein to
exercise her powers. We believe that this contortion of character is
justly attributable to the denial of the right of voting, the great
mode by which the questions of the day are decided in this country.
Politics are our national life. As civilization advances, its issues
will penetrate still deeper into social and every-day life of the
people; and no man or woman can be regarded as an entity, as a power
in society, who has not a direct agency in governing its results.
Without a direct voice in molding the spirit of the age, the age will
disown us.

"But the objection is argued seriously. Political rivalry will arm the
wife against the husband; a man's foes will be those of his own
household. But we believe tha