Female Suffrage | Page 3

modify the etext or this "small print!"
statement. You may however, if you wish, distribute this etext in
machine readable binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- cessing or
hypertext software, but only so long as *EITHER*:

[*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and does *not*
contain characters other than those intended by the author of the work,
although tilde (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may be used
to convey punctuation intended by the author, and additional characters
may be used to indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at no expense into
plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent form by the program that displays
the etext (as is the case, for instance, with most word processors); OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at no additional
cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form
(or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small
Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits
you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate
your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due.
Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following
each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual
(or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning
machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright
licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money
should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon
University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

{This e-text has been prepared from the original two-part magazine
article, "Female Suffrage: A Letter to the Christian Women of
America," by Susan Fenimore Cooper, which appeared in Harper's
New Weekly Magazine, Vol. XLI (June--November, 1870), pp. 438-
446, 594-600. The author is identified only in the Table of Contents, p.
v, where she is listed as "Susan F. Cooper."
Transcribed by Hugh C. MacDougall [email protected]
{Because "vanilla text" does not permit of accents or italics, accents
have been ignored, and both all-capital and italicized words transcribed
as ALL CAPITALS. Paragraphs are separated by a blank line, but not
indented. Footnotes by Susan Fenimore Cooper are inserted as
paragraphs (duly identified) as indicated by her asterisks. All insertions
by the transcriber are enclosed in {brackets}. For readers wishing to
know the exact location of specific passages, the page breaks from
Harper's are identified by a blank line at the end of each page, followed
by the original page number at the beginning of the next.
{A Brief Introduction to Susan Fenimore Cooper's article:
{The question of "female suffrage" has long been resolved in the
United States, and--though sometimes more recently--in other
democratic societies as well. For most people, certainly in the so-
called Western world, the right of women to vote on a basis of equality
with men seems obvious. A century ago this was not the case, even in
America, and it required a long, arduous, and sometimes painful
struggle before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920.
{Why then, take steps to make available through the Gutenberg Project
an article arguing AGAINST the right of women to vote--an article
written by a woman?
{There are two reasons for doing so. The first is that Susan Fenimore
Cooper (1813-1894) was no ordinary woman. She was educated in
Europe and extremely well read; she was the daughter and literary
assistant of James Fenimore Cooper, America's first internationally
recognized novelist; and she was a naturalist and essayist of great talent
whose "nature diary" of her home village at Cooperstown, published as
"Rural Hours" in 1850, has become a classic of early American
environmental literature.
{Yet Susan Fenimore Cooper argued eloquently, bringing to her task

not only her deep religious feelings but also her very considerable
knowledge of world history and of American society, that women
should not be given the vote! Hers was not a simple defense of male
dominion; her case is combined with equally eloquent arguments in
favor of higher education for women, and for equal wages for equal
work. "Female Suffrage," is thus of considerable biographic importance,
throwing important light on her views of God, of society, and of
American culture.
{At the same time, "Female Suffrage" demonstrates that no social
argument--however popular or politically correct today--can be
considered as self-evident. Those who favor full legal and social
equality of the sexes at the ballot box and elsewhere (as I believe