e law." Some meddlesome fanatic, engaged
in setting up type, conceived the idea, that he need not pay his
tax till he was represented before the law: then why should woman
do so? Now, I ask, what possible reason is there that woman, as a
mother, as a wife, as a laborer, as a capitalist, as an artist,
as a citizen, should be subjected to any laws except such as
govern man? What moral reason is there for this, under the
American idea? Does not the same interest, the same strong tie,
bind the mother to her children, that bind the father? Has she
not the same capacity to teach them that the father has? and
often more? Now, the law says: "If the father be living, the
mother is nothing; but, if the father be dead, the mother is
everything." Did she inherit from her husband his great
intellect? If she did not, what is the common sense of such a
statute? The mother has the same rights, in regard to her
children, that the father has: there should be no distinction.

Yours is not a new reform. The gentleman who occupied the
platform a few moments ago gave the common representation of this
cause: "If a husband doesn't do about right, his wife will pull
his hair; and, if you let her have her way, she may vote the
Democratic ticket, and he the Republican; and _vice versa_."
Well, now, my dear friend, suppose it were just so; it is too
late to complain. That point has long been settled; if you will
read history a little, you will see it was settled against you.
In the time of Luther, it was a question: "Can a woman choose her
own creed?" The feudal ages said: "No; she believes as her
husband believes, of course." But the reformers said: "She ought
to think for herself; her husband is not her God." "But," it was
objected, "should there be difference of opinion between man and
wife, the husband believing one creed and the wife another, there
would be continual discord." But the reply was: "God settled
that; God has settled it that every responsible conscience should
have a right to his own creed." And Christendom said: "Amen." The
reformers of Europe, to this day, have allowed freedom of
opinion; and who says that the experience of three centuries has
found the husband and wife grappling each other's throats on
religious differences? It would be Papal and abs