Men, as well as women, do not need political rights
in order that they may govern, but in order that they may not be
misgoverned. The majority of the male sex are, and will be all their
lives, nothing else than labourers in cornfields or manufactories; but
this does not render the suffrage less desirable for them, nor their
claim to it less irresistible, when not likely to make a bad use of
it. Nobody pretends to think that woman would make a bad use of the
suffrage. The worst that is said is that they would vote as mere
dependents, the bidding of their male relations. If it be so, so let
it be. If they think for themselves, great good will be done, and if
they do not, no harm. It is a benefit to human beings to take off
their fetters, even if they do not desire to walk. It would already be
a great improvement in the moral position of women to be no longer
declared by law incapable of an opinion, and not entitled to a
preference, respecting the most important concerns of humanity.
There would be some benefit to them individually in having something
to bestow which their male relatives cannot exact, and are yet
desirous to have. It would also be no small benefit that the husband
would necessarily discuss the matter with his wife, and that the
vote would not be his exclusive affair, but a joint concern. People do
not sufficiently consider how markedly the fact that she is able to
have some action on the outward world independently of him raises
her dignity and value in a vulgar man's eyes, and makes her the object
of a respect which no personal qualities would ever obtain for one
whose social existence he can entirely appropriate.
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