726 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



question. Tlie situation is such, that the sexes can not take an equal 

 share of governmental responsibilities even if they should desire 

 to do so. Woman suffrage becomes government by women alone 

 on every occasion where a measure is carried by the aid of woman's 

 votes. If such a measure should be obnoxious to a majority of 

 men, they could successfully defy a party composed of a minority 

 of their own sex and a majority of women. That this would be 

 done there can be no question, for we have a parallel case in the 

 attempt to carry into effect negro suffrage in some parts of the 

 South. We know the history too well. Intimidation, deception, 

 and the manipulation of the count, have nullified the negro vote. 

 How many Governors, Legislatures, and even Presidents have at- 

 tained their positions in violation of the rights of the ballot dur- 

 ing the last twenty years, we may never know. In times of peace 

 and general prosperity these things have excited indignant pro- 

 test, but nothing more. But when serious issues distract the na- 

 tion or any part of it, frauds on the ballot and intimidation of 

 voters will be a more serious matter, and will lead to disastrous 

 consequences. We do not want to increase possibilities of such 

 evil portent. Unqualified negro suffrage is, in the writer's estima- 

 tion, a serious blunder, and woman suffrage would be another. 

 And it is now proposed that we have both combined. 



Immunity from service in executing the law would make most 

 women irresponsible voters. But there are other reasons why the 

 questions involved in government are foreign to the thoughts of 

 most women. The characteristics of the female mind have been 

 already described. Most men who have associated much with 

 girls and women remember how many needed lessons they have 

 learned from them in refinement and benevolence ; and how they 

 have had, on the other hand, to steel their minds against their aim- 

 lessness and pettiness. And from youth to later years they have 

 observed one peculiarity for which no remedy has been yet found, 

 and that is, a pronounced frailty of the rational faculty in thought 

 or action. This characteristic is offset by a strength and elevation 

 of the emotional nature, which shines with inextinguishable luster 

 in the wife and mother. It is to this that man renders the hom- 

 age of respect, admiration, and such devotion as he is capable of. 

 But, are these the qualities for our governors ? Men who display 

 personal bias in ever so small a degree, unless accompanied by un- 

 usual merits of another kind, are not selected by their fellows for 

 positions of responsibility and trust. Strong understanding, vig- 

 orous judgment, and the absence of " fear, favor, and affection," 

 are what men desire in their governors ; for only through minds 

 of that character can justice be obtained. 



On account of their stronger sympathies girls always think 

 themselves the moral superiors of boys, who are often singularly 



