of them? Where lies this dim necessity of thrusting upon
women the burdens of the suffrage? And why should the entire nation be
thrown into the perilous convulsions of a revolution more truly
formidable than any yet attempted on earth? Bear in mind that this is a
revolution which, if successful in all its aims, can scarcely fail to
sunder the family roof-tree, and to uproot the family hearth-stone. It
is the avowed determination of many of its champions that it shall do
so; while with another class of its leaders, to weaken and undermine
the authority of the Christian faith in the household is an object if
not frankly avowed yet scarcely concealed. The great majority of the
women enlisted in this movement--many of them, it is needless to say,
very worthy persons as individuals--are little aware of all the perils
into which some of their most zealous male allies would lead them.
Degradation for the sex, and not true and lasting elevation, appear to
most of us likely to be the end to which this movement must necessarily
tend, unless it be checked by the latent good sense, the true wisdom,
and the religious principle of women themselves, aroused, at length, to
protest, to resist. If we are called upon for proof of the assertion,
that American men are already prepared to redress actual grievances, we
find that proof in their course at the present moment. Observe the
patience with which our legislative bodies are now considering the
petitions of a clamorous minority demanding the redress of a fictitious
grievance--a minority demanding a political position which the majority
of their sex still utterly reject--a position repugnant to the habits,
the feelings, the tastes, and the principles of that majority. If men
are willing to give their attention to these querulous demands of a
small minority of our sex, how much more surely may we rely on their
sympathy, and their efficient support, when some measure in which the
interests of the whole sex are clearly involved shall be brought before
them by all their wives and mothers?

And again: they are not only already prepared to redress grievances,
but also to forward all needed development of true womanly action.
Take, in proof of this, assertion, the subject of education. This is,
beyond all doubt the vital question of the age, embracing within its
limits all others. Education is of far more importance than the
suffrage, which is eventually subject to it, controlled by it. This is,