powers for good in a republic, this is the
strongest, most beneficent, did woman rightly comprehend the issue.

The purity, safety, and perpetuity of a free government rest,
ultimately, not so much on forms of law, on precedents, on the
ascendency of this or that party or administration, but on the
intelligence, morality, and devotion to freedom of the people. What
should woman care to legislate, when she may wield such an engine of
power as education puts into her hands; when she may mould the minds and
inspire the souls of those who are to be the future legislators; when
she may, even now, put forth a direct and immediate influence upon those
who are the legislators of the present time? For her influence on
society is twofold, direct and reflex, present and prospective; it is
the most powerful known, the most subtile and secret and determining,
viz., _personal_ influence.

To this end, therefore, that she may influence in the right direction,
women need to inform themselves, to acquire a knowledge of the
principles on which our system rests, and to become thoroughly imbued
with their spirit. This will necessitate an acquaintance with the nature
and details of our political creed, of which our women, especially, are
lamentably ignorant. How many out of every hundred, do you suppose, have
even read the Constitution, for instance? You may say that the majority
of men have never studied it either, even of the voters. I admit the
fact. There is a terrible lack of information among even men on public
subjects. But I think this: if women were to educate themselves and
their children, all whom they influence, indeed, to make these subjects
a matter of _personal interest_, instead of regarding them as foreign
matters, well enough for lawyers and politicians, perhaps, to
understand, or for those who expect to fill office, but of no manner of
importance to a person in strictly private life, this ignorance would
come to an end. This shifting of personal responsibility by the great
majority is the bane of our system. The truth is, no one, in a
republican government, can lead an absolutely private career. As one who
exercises the elective franchise, or one who influences the same, be it
man or woman, there is no dodging the responsibility of citizenship. A
better State of information on public affairs, also, will induce a
correct conception of a certain class of ideas which, more than any
others, perhaps, tend to strengthen, deepe