PREFATORY.

This Work is not an Essay on what is technically understood as Woman's Rights. One could hardly do more than glean in such a field, after it had been harvested by reapers like Mary Wolistonecraft, John Stuart Mill, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, George W. Curtis, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, and many others.

But, notwithstanding so much has been written and said on the particular subject of Woman's Rights, the Woman question is by no means exhausted. There is a whole side of the question of her enfranchisement (and it seems to me much the larger side), which has been but incidentally noticed; and that is, its moral bearings and relations. Giving full weight to the legal claims of Woman, which are as sacred and inalienable as those of man, I am confident it will yet be found that there are special moral interests wrapped up in this issue, which far transcend, in point of importance, any and every other consideration.

In expressing this opinion, I would not have it thought that I cast the least reflection upon the pioneer advocates of Woman's Suffrage for any seeming neglect of duty, or lack of perception to recognize the moral significance of this Movement. No, no; their devotion to the cause has been as vigilant as a mother's love, and their vision of its future triumph radiant with the morning light of a brighter day. No work could have been more fitting and timely than their's. In the first stage of the reform, it was not only natural, but it was necessary to consider alone the question of Woman's abstract rights; for however desirable it might be to clothe her with civil and political power, however great the blessing which the ballot in her hand might

be supposed to confer on others, it must be withheld if she has not a We are not permitted to do wrong that

just claim to its possession. good even may come of it. So it was incumbent to first establish Woman's rightful claim to suffrage before other questions could be entertained.

But that great field of controversy is now virtually won, and the public are eager to know what this Movement contemplates, if any, over and beyond the establishment of justice for Woman, in granting her prayer for an equal right to participate in making the laws and governments under which she is obliged to live, and for whose support she is taxed.

No considerable statement of a special and definite character, setting forth its higher aims and ultimate designs, has yet been made; and it is the object of this work to supply, in some small degree, this great want. In view of the vastness of the field the inquiry covers, I am deeply conscious of its incompleteness, and can only hope that I have been able to point out enough of interest and worth to induce some master hand to follow and give to the world a more elaborate and worthy statement. But such as it is, I send it forth, believing that what it lacks in fullness and finish, is more than compensated for in the general correctness and soundness of the views and principles laid down and for these I court considerate criticism.

RUSHFORD, N. Y., September, 1874.

L. M.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE WOMAN MOVEMENT.

The civil and political enfranchisement of Woman, at no distant day, is now pretty generally accepted as a foregone conclusion, both by intelligent opposers of the cause as well as its friends; but with what result, is a question on which there is the widest difference of opinion. But whether for weal or woe, it is an experiment which seems destined to be tried. The agitation of the subject is too far advanced, and its friends are too numerous, too powerful, and too intelligent to be put down. The issue is upon us, and must be met.

John Stuart Mill says that, "every great reform must pass through three stages of development: first, ridicule; second, discussion; third, adoption." The Woman Suffrage Movement has already passed the first stage of its growth, and is now receiving an earnest and candid discussion of its merits at the hands of many of the ablest thinkers of the world. No reform, in its earlier stages, ever had such an array of talent and respectability enlisted in its behalf. It would be too tedious to attempt to call the roll of eminent statesmen, jurists, divines, editors, authors and reformers who are avowed friends of the cause. The rapid progress this Movement is making, in one form or another, is most gratifying to friends and

appalling to foes. Legislative bodies are voting upon the question; Constitutional Conventions are submitting it to the people for adoption or rejection; the Press is agitating it; political parties are giving it "respectful consideration;" several of the States are preparing the way for it by making Woman eligible to office under the school laws, and the Grangers, a semi-political organization, admit her to equal membership in their order.

In England the subject is even more popular, if anything, than in the United States. In all town, parochial and municipal elections, Woman is now permitted to vote; and more than a third of the members of Parliament have signified by ballot their willingness to grant her Imperial Suffrage. Disraeli and Gladstone are both said to be favorable to the cause.

But not alone to the United States and England is the reform confined. Every civilized nation on the globe has its Woman Suffrage organizations, papers and advocates, engaged in agitating this question. And the fruit of all these labors is seen in the general enlargement of Woman's sphere of activities. New fields of industry are being opened to her nimble fingers; colleges are endowed for her special benefit and higher education; the doors of the oldest institutions of learning are swinging open to her admission, and the learned professions are inviting her to come in and master their lore, and share in the responsibilities and rewards.

In other, and, perhaps, more congenial fields of employment, she is marching on to conquest. Temperance movements, Foreign and Home Missionary Societies, and Christian and Sanitary Commissions, all