POLITICAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF WOMEN. 95 



good ? then will the era of social and political construction upon a 

 grander order begin. Meantime, to the chorus of the citizen, the 

 workingman, the serf, the slave, all accusing the old tyrannies of 

 denied justice, is added the shrill note of " insurge7it" woman- 

 hood — not universal womanhood, for universal womanhood, ac- 

 quiescent and content in the spheres of service which her lot as 

 wife and mother and other equally helpful relations to society 

 give her, has not joined in the revolt. 



The formula of the demand of " insurgent " womanhood is the 

 ballot, but the ballot must be considered with all the power to 

 make and administer the laws which it confers, with the probable 

 changes in social customs it involves, and the new conditions it 

 will present under which the struggle for life will go on. 



I have assumed that the concession of the ballot, pure and 

 simple, will not be satisfactory to those bodies that represent 

 what is called the Woman's Cause. Senator Hoar, perhaps the 

 most conspicuous man who has appeared as their champion, 

 specially says : " I am quite willing to agree that no class of per- 

 sons who are permitted to vote should be excluded as a class from 

 holding office." 



We may as well consider what changes in human society, and 

 especially in the character and fortunes of woman, the new order 

 of things sought to be inaugurated will be likely to bring about. 



Immediately, and in one generation, not very many or consid- 

 erable. Character, that has been slowly molded by certain influ- 

 ences, acting for long periods, will not be modified immediately 

 by the withdrawal of those influences. Whatever deterioration 

 occurs, whatever new hardships make the lot of woman more 

 tragic, will only appear after adverse influences have had their 

 full term of operation. 



Neither in readjusting the duties toward society of the sexes 

 respectively are men likely to insist that, in taking full political 

 powers, women shall surrender any or all of their present immu- 

 nities and privileges. The relation of the contracting parties is 

 not one that will make any such rigid and hard bargain possible. 

 But that surrender will inevitably be brought about by the indig- 

 nant disdain of the women, who will have effected the social revo- 

 lution, at being the recipients of any privileges which differentiate 

 their situation or hamper them in their complete development. 

 The inevitable ultimate result of subjecting the two human sexes 

 to the same labors, the same employments, the same cares, will be 

 just the same as when dom-estic animals have been subjected for 

 , long periods to the same conditions : sexual differences, physical 

 and mental, will tend to disappear, and the two branches of the 

 race will approximate a common type. 



He has inadequately considered the nature of the demands 



