ow
only the practice of follies and wrongs. This is the argument, in
brief, applied to every step of gradual emancipation on the part
of the male, and now by him applied to the female struggling to
reach the common platform. Should the American male, in the van
of human progress, as the result of this theory of a capacity for
self-government, turn round and ignore this divinity, this
capacity in another branch of the human family? The theory has
worked only good in its application thus far, and it is a most
unreasonable, a most unwarrantable distrust to expect it to
produce mischief when applied to others in all respects mentally
and morally the equals of those who now enjoy it. It neither can
nor will do so; but, necessarily, the broader and more universal
its application, the broader and more universal its benefits.

The possession of political rights by woman does not necessarily
imply that she must or will enter into the practical conduct of
all the institutions, proper and improper, now established and
maintained by the male portion of the race. These institutions
may be right and necessary, or they may not, and the nature of
woman may or may not be in harmony with them. It is not proposed
to enact a law compelling woman to do certain things, but it is
proposed simply to place her side by side with man on a common
platform of rights, confident that, in that position, she will
not outrage the "higher law" of her nature by descending to a
participation in faults, follies, or crimes, for which she has no
constitutional predilections. The association of woman with man,
in the various relations of life in which such association is
permitted, from the first unclosing of his eyes in the imbecility
of infancy, till they close finally upon all things earthly, is
conceded to be highly beneficial. Indeed, we think it will be
found, on scrutiny, that it is only those institutions of society
in which women have no part, and from which they are entirely
excluded, which are radically wrong, and need either thorough
renovation or entire abrogation. And if we have any duties so
essentially degrading, or any institution so essentially impure,
as to be beyond the renovating influence which woman can bring to
bear on them, beyond question they should be abro