190 PENOBSCOT AND AROOSTOOK UNION SOCIETY. 



Ladies, I would say a few words directly to you. You probably 

 need not be told, that men treat women according to the state 

 of civilization in which they live. In countries highly civilized or 

 grossly barbarous, the difference in treatment is very great. In 

 the one, they are treated with kindness, tenderness, and as equals ; 

 in the other, they are treated as slaves and comiDelled to perform 

 the hardest labor and most degrading drudgery. But with respect 

 to you, although you have no voice in electing the oflScers and 

 making the laws by which you are governed, you can perform a 

 very important public service. Although you can neither make 

 laws nor command armies, you can form the minds which do both. 

 One of our greatest statesmen and best men, whose father was 

 nearly his equal, said, if he had done the world any good, if he had 

 benefited mankind, the credit was all due to the influence of his 



t 



mother. Your influence over men is very great, whether they ad- 

 mit it or not. Your opinion will have an influence in the choice of 

 their pursuits, in the style and finish of the house and the orna- 

 ments which surround it. But in the house, in the family circle, 

 your influence is almost supreme ; nothing can fill your place. 

 With that in view, the poet exclaimed : 



«' What is a table, richly spread, 

 Without a woman at the head.'' 



You can make home the most sacred and happy place on earth — a 

 paradise of joy, or seat of misery. Your smiles or frowns will 

 cause the sun of domestic happiness to rise or set. Many contend 

 that men and women should enjoy equal political rights ; that to 

 compel them to obey laws in making which they have no voice, is 

 both unequal and unjust. Others contend that women are inferior 

 in intellect, and therefore unfit for public affairs. But our semina- 

 ries of learning show that while young men graduate at 21 years, 

 young ladies do at 11 ; and when had England a wiser or better 

 sovereign than her present virtuous Queen ? 



I would here give my views on treating the young. Many are 

 nearly or quite ruined for life, by being restrained from action and 

 kept in the house, under the mistaken idea of parental kindness. 

 Action, energetic action in the pure air, from infancy to manhood, 

 will insure a strong and healthy body and active mind, in nearly 

 every individual. Young lady, what better situation could you 

 have, than be a thrifty young farmer's wife ? With a good farm, 

 beautiful buildings, garden, orchard, fields, flocks and herds, when 

 taking the healthy walk over such a farm, with what delight and 



