Woman and the Republic

and the Republic, by Helen
Kendrick Johnson

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Title: Woman and the Republic A Survey of the Woman-Suffrage
Movement in the United States and a Discussion of the Claims and
Arguments of Its Foremost Advocates
Author: Helen Kendrick Johnson

Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7300] [Yes, we are more than
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WOMAN AND THE REPUBLIC
A SURVEY OF THE WOMAN-SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN THE
UNITED STATES AND A DISCUSSION OF THE CLAIMS AND
ARGUMENTS OF ITS FOREMOST ADVOCATES BY
HELEN KENDRICK JOHNSON

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER II.
IS WOMAN SUFFRAGE DEMOCRATIC?

CHAPTER III.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC
CHAPTER IV.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND PHILANTHROPY
CHAPTER V.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE LAWS
CHAPTER VI.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE TRADES
CHAPTER VII.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE PROFESSIONS
CHAPTER VIII.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND EDUCATION
CHAPTER IX.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE CHURCH
CHAPTER X.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND SEX
CHAPTER XI.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE HOME
CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The introduction to the "History of Woman Suffrage," published in
1881-85, edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and
Matilda Joslyn Gage, contains the following statement: "It is often
asserted that, as woman has always been man's slave, subject, inferior,
dependent, under all forms of government and religion, slavery must be
her normal condition; but that her condition is abnormal is proved by
the marvellous change in her character, from a toy in the Turkish harem,
or a drudge in the German fields, to a leader of thought in the literary
circles of France, England, and America."
I have made this quotation partly on account of its direct application to
the subject to be discussed, and partly to illustrate the contradictions
that seem to inhere in the arguments on which the claim to Woman
Suffrage is founded. If woman has become a leader of thought in the
literary circles of the most cultivated lands, she has not always been
man's slave, subject, inferior, dependent, under all forms of government
and religion; and, furthermore, it is not true that there has been such a
marvellous change in her character as is implied in this statement.
Where man is a bigot and a barbarian, there, alas! woman is still a
harem toy; where man is little more than a human clod, woman is
to-day a drudge in the field; where man has hewn the way to
governmental and religious freedom, there woman has become a leader
of thought. The unity of race progress is strikingly suggested by this
fact. The method through which that unity is maintained should unfold
itself as we study the story of the sex advancement of our time.
Progress is a magic word, and the Suffrage party has been fortunate in
its attempt to invoke the sorcery of the thought that it enfolds, and to
blend it with the claim of woman to share in the public duty of voting.
Possession of the elective franchise is a symbol of power in man's hand;
why should it not bear the same relation to woman's upward impulse

and action? Modern adherents ask, "Is not the next new force at hand in
our social evolution to come from the entrance of woman upon the
political arena?" The roots of these questions, and consequently of their
answers, lie as deep as the roots of being, and they cannot be laid bare
by superficial digging. But the laying bare of roots is not the only way,
or even the best way, to judge of the strength and beauty of a growth.
We look at the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit. "Movement" and