e responsible for public
sentiment, as regards the difference of criminality of man and
woman.

For my own part, I am not prepared to respect that philosophy. I
believe in sin, therefore in a sinner; in theft, therefore in a
thief; in slavery, therefore in a slaveholder; in wrong,
therefore in a wrong-doer; and unless the men of this nation are
made by woman to see that they have been guilty of usurpation,
and cruel usurpation, I believe very little progress will be
made. To say all this has been done without thinking, without
calculation, without design, by mere accident, by a want of
light; can anybody believe this who is familiar with all the
facts in the case? Certainly, for one, I hope ever to lean to the
charitable side, and will try to do so. I, too, believe things
are done through misconception and misapprehension, which are
injurious, yes, which are immoral and unchristian; but only to a
limited extent. There is such a thing as intelligent wickedness,
a design on the part of those who have the light to quench it,
and to do the wrong to gratify their own propensities, and to
further their own interests. So, then, I believe, that as man has
monopolized for generations all the rights which belong to woman,
it has not been accidental, not through ignorance on his part;
but I believe that man has done this through calculation,
actuated by a spirit of pride, a desire for domination which has
made him degrade woman in her own eyes, and thereby tend to make
her a mere vassal.

It seems to me, therefore, that we are to deal with the
consciences of men. It is idle to say that the guilt is common,
that the women are as deeply involved in this matter as the men.
Never can it be said that the victims are as much to be blamed as
the victimizer; that the slaves are to be as much blamed as the
slaveholders and slave-drivers; that the women who have no
rights, are to be as much blamed as the men who have played the
part of robbers and tyrants. We must deal with conscience. The
men of this nation, and the men of all nations, have no just
respect for woman. They have tyrannized over her deliberately,
they have not sinned through ignorance, but theirs is not the
knowledge that saves. Who can say truly, that in all things he
acts up to the li