only feeling
of the thoughtful mind when observing this striking advance in
intellectual acquirement. We see that man has not yet fully mastered
the knowledge he has acquired. He runs to and fro. He rushes from one
extreme to the other. How many chapters of modern history, both
political and religious, are full of the records of this mental
vacillation of our race, of this illogical and absurd tendency to pass
from one extreme to the point farthest from it!

An adventurous party among us, weary of the old paths, is now eagerly
proclaiming theories and doctrines entirely novel on this important
subject. The EMANCIPATION OF WOMAN is the name chosen by its advocates
for this movement. They reject the idea of all subordination, even in
the mildest form, with utter scorn. They claim for woman absolute
social and political equality with man. And they seek to secure these
points by conferring on the whole sex the right of the elective
franchise, female suffrage being the first step in the unwieldy
revolutions they aim at bringing about. These views are no longer
confined to a small sect. They challenge our attention at every turn.
We meet them in society; we read them in the public prints; we hear of
them in grave legislative assemblies, in the Congress of the Republic,
in the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain. The time has come when it
is necessary that all sensible and conscientious men and women should
make up their minds clearly on a subject bearing upon the future
condition of the entire race.

There is generally more than one influence at work in all public
movements of importance. The motive power in such cases is very seldom
simple. So it has been with the question of female suffrage. The abuses
inflicted on woman by legislation, the want of sufficient protection
for her interests when confided to man, are generally asserted by the
advocates of female suffrage as the chief motives for a change in the
laws which withhold from her the power of voting. But it is also
considered by the friend of the new movement that to withhold the
suffrage from half the race is an inconsistency in American politics;
that suffrage is an inalienable right, universal in its application;
that women are consequently deprived of a great natural right when
denied the power of voting. A third reason is also given for this
proposed change in our political constitution. It is asserted that the
entire sex would be greatly elevated in intellec