> >:>::^:>.^ •».>"> D'^*%'<%'^'§: fLIBRARYOFCOJVGRESS.f 1=^?^^ i> x;s >>>^>= .:>.>>^ ^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.^ r:3?>. £>. >0» o^ ^- "^^ ^^ ^ &.'2>) -■> > XZ> ^2>> X>3>^ >: 2»..32 ^-'^ 3*^:^^^ 3 3:^ > 3:5:) ^)> £>":>:>> o" " :?x> 3 :>:>> >^ >^ s:^ ^t>::> ^> ^ >3.J> 3j>3o' ^^^ '32X3 J _ >^S:» ^3::> -^>:>-:^''\3>:2 >>!> ^ v3>:S >>r> 5' ^^ 3>^5> 333 X>:> ^^^^ ^>1>l3S>3 > t> 3 ■ "^ >>.:f> 3i>:> ' O y ' .vj, '>»>> :;;:>33 ' >3>^3^ 3>1> :z>2>3 >3>. > •■ )^ :>3>" > ^^ >=.^:> ~ 3 5^ >^^>3o3 > '^P?3 :>^03®^ >^3 3^^ '^33 3 _ .i:»)->33^ ->:03 o>_^^ '^^ :>3»_:^ >0>..^.-. -o^ 3' i> ^:> >?>> > ^ ^3 3>:2>3C>>X ► jj>j> >,>:">? '^^ z i>?^ :>> ^ :>'^>3 ^ ^^^^ ^ ^>3 '>33> >?.> ^ ^^^?-^ »:> ^ > >z> 3> y3 > ^-33 3 >5> >"i>"^Z> 3^^r:> > >:33-:3 :j>» 3 • ' > 3>:2) > 5 ::>.i> >4>^ >:?.-=> . *^:y> > 3> 3>;:3i3^X>3.:5 :3>3 ^. ^ ~ZS>ltxr^ 33 - g^ ^ :>:> t> >i3 €i}c Vice Presidents. Pkof. D. M. BRUMAGIM, A. M., ) Mrs. D. M. BRUMAGIM, Secretary. 1870-71. Hon. valorous TAFT, President. W. P.. MILLER, M. D., Rev. P. OTHEMAN, {^^^^^^, Phesidents. Rev. D. PATTEN, D. D., Rev. E. COOKE, D. D., Mrs. J. WESLEY BLISS, Secretary and Treasurer. CORRESPONDENCE. 1). Y. KiLGOUE, Esq. Dear Sir, — At a meeting of the Wesleyan Academy Alumni Associa- tion, held at Wilbraham, June 29th, 1870, tlie following resolution was unanimously adopted : — Resolved, That the thanks of this Association be tendered to D. Y. Kilgore, Esq., for his able and very Interesting oration delivered before us this day, and that we request a copy of the same for publication Very respectfully, Mrs. D. M. BRUMAGnr, Secretary W. A. A. A. Mrs. D. M. Brumagim, Secy Wes. AcaxVy Alumni Association. Bear Madam, — The manuscript copy of tlie address delivered yester- day before your Association is hereby placed at your disposal. Very respectfully, Damox Y. Kilgore. WiLBKAHAM, Jwie 30, 1870. THE QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Wesleyan Academy Alumni Association : — The world is not content. Motion is everywhere throuo-hout the realm of mind. There is no such thino- as rest. Inertia is a property of matter recognized by man's outward sense alone. Those atomic enero-ies, inherent in a block of wood or stone, are dormant only to man's touch and vision, because of his too gross perception, or the huge- ness of the apparatus with which he works. Whether attraction, repulsion, electricity, and magnet- ism are properties of dead matter, or of the elements of life which accompany it ; whether it acts, or is simply acted upon by these and other forces, external and supe- rior to itself, — one result is reached, a constant, ceaseless motion, a perpetual change. From the minutest cell of vegetable life, within which narrow limits the vital essence, responsive to the light of heaven, pulsates to the outer wall, or the smallest monad that exhibits active enero-v, the simplest form of animated being perceptible, through all the realms of intelligent existence up to man, there is no exception to this great law of change. Time is a universal leveler ; and the most endurino- monuments, even the granite mountains and the everlast- ing hills, crumble beneath his remorseless blows. So with all the material works of man. He builds houses, and the years tear them down. He erects monuments to perpetu- G THE QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY. ate his fame ; but the ages hurl them back to dust, and wipe out their memory from human thought. To-day I recall this landscape as it was twenty years ago. How changed in that short period ! Of all the buildings called by the corporate name of this Institution, one only remains. The old Academy still stands, a defiant monument, proof against the innovations of masons and carpenters, and the destroying hand of Time. But that also will soon follow its predecessors ; and before another score of years shall pass, upon its ruins a grander temple of education shall be reared, of ampler dimensions, beauti- ful in architecture, and of solid material, which shall con- tribute to and keep pace with the advancing civilization of a new era. The old must die that the new may live. These changes, whether wrought in a score of years or ages, all speak to the philosophic mind of prosperity and progress. From the strife and toil of business in our various pur- suits, the students of former years have gathered here to renew the Past. To this hallowed spot, consecrated to science and relig- ion, and enshrined in all our hearts, we have come to live over again the golden years of youth. The memory of those years is still green in our minds; and to recount the incidents of our school-days in The Wesleyan Acad- emy, incidents of defeats and victories, victories that proved to be defeats, and defeats that turned out to be victories, — all matters of interest as preparation for life's after strug- gles, — would be a pleasing task. But amid the perplexities of a profession which knows no rest, anticipating the array of talent and learning which I now behold, gathered from the East, West, North, and South, together with the resistless might of such mentality THE QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY. 7 upon the future destiny of our country, I feel constrained to speak to you of THE QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY. At no period of the world's history have great events crowded each other on the highway of Time with such swiftness and force as in the life-time of those now before me. This nineteenth century seems privileged to appro- priate all knowledge of the centuries gone before, and in it seems to culminate the wisdom of antiquity. It is the duty of those who live to-day — the impera- tive duty of developed and cultivated minds — to adapt all human knowledge to human wants, and thus to utilize the Past. For this all history, whether written in books, or stones, or stars, becomes available to the comprehension and establishment of the real philosophy of life. To learn the importance of this age in which we are privileged to live and act, we need not go back to those remote ages about which geology tells, when the founda- tions of the earth were laid, when this infant world was rocked in its cradle of volcanic fires, its thin crust swayed to and fro by the swelling tide of boiling lava ; or millions of years thereafter, when New England's hills were lifted by those internal forces, and lakes and seas wiped out by the volcano's fiery breath ; or to a later period still, when gigantic Ichthyosauri ploughed the seas, huge Iguanodons roamed through the forests, or the murky air was navi- gated by the Pterodactyl, which like Milton's Fiend, jour- neying from Pandemonium, — " Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying ; . . . O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way. And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 8 THE QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY Nor need we study minutely the earliest traditions of the human race, to learn the mighty significance of the present age, in which " nations are born in a day." We do not underrate the Past. Other centuries have been prolific in great events, which in history " Stand .sublime, Flino-iii"; their shadows from on hi^^h, Like dials, which the wizard Time Had raised to count his ages by." The century from which we reckon time, was heralded by the world's most perfect specimen of manhood. In him culminated the virtues of all the myriads gone before; and although rejected by his own age, and made the victim of ignorance and vice, he stands to-day a great moral lumi- nary, shedding his light upon all the years that have intervened, and will continue to gladden all the years to come. Without reference to the controverted question in theology as to his divine nature, all just minds agree that in illustrating the possibilities of hmnan nature, the man of Nazareth has placed under obligations all future generations. The victory of the people over King John in securing Magna Charta, which Mr. Hallam calls " the key-stone of English liberty," in the thirteenth, and the reformation in the church, commenced by Luther in the sixteenth, consecrated both centuries to immortality. But the greatest event in history, since the birth of Christ, was the Declaration of American Independence. It introduced a new era in human government. It opened up a new path for the human race, Avorn and wearied with forty centuries of wandering in the wilderness. By it the old superstitions which hedged in royalty were swept away, and kingly prerogatives assumed as the inherent right THE QUESTION OF CASTE. 9 of manlioocl alone. That instrument declared the people s ri2:ht to institute such o;overnment as would secure to them " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and that " whenever any form of government becomes de- structive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." What the mariner's compass was to navigation, the printing-press to literature, the steam-engine to machin- ery, and the electric telegraph to transmitted thought, these principles are destined to be to human government. To make them practical, however, will require something more than amendments to the Constitution of the United States. It will require years of education, struggle, conflict, heroism, and perhaps the sacrifice of blood, to lift Amer- ican civilization to a practical acknowledgment of the equality of all human souls in rights, not only to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but to enlighten- ment, opportunity for mental and spiritual growth, and an untrammeled reliorion. The first great obstacle we have to encounter, hostile to all individual and national progress, is the QUESTION OF CASTE. Strange indeed that after ninety years of experiment and four more years of terrible slaughter, we are not yet able to read the first line of the Declaration of Inde- pendence aright. Strange indeed that after four mil- lions of slaves have been emancipated, the Fifteenth Amendment ratified, the ballot placed in the hands of 10 THE QUESTION OF CASTE. the colored man, and when both political parties are -striv- ing for his vote, that the spirit of caste should remain. It was to be expected that in the South the prejudices of two hundred years, exasperated by suffering and de- feat, would strive to vent its outraged dignity upon the new-made freemen. But this spirit of caste is strong and vigorous in the North, where every object upon which the eye can rest should rebuke its wicked and hateful presumption. Emancipation came as a military neces- sity, in order to save the nation's life, not from a sense of duty to the slave. Enfranchisement followed as a political party necessity, rather than a conscientious be- lief in his right to the ballot. To-day in my own city, crowned with hallowed memories of freedom, which rival Faneuil Hall and Bunker Hill ; where first the tones of Independence Bell proclaimed "Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof;" where the Declaration was pubHshed, amid the ringing of bells, booming of cannon, and the shouts of a people deter- mined to be free, — the spirit of caste is rampant. In that city of Penn, of brotherly love and devotion to the Union, only a few weeks since the procession in honor of the Fifteenth Amendment was ruthlessly at- tacked, and several of the colored people injured. This outrage was charged upon the Democratic party ; but this spirit of hatred is not confined to party. In that same city a United States Senator was denied the privi- lege of speaking in the Academy of Music, by a board of trustees composed of prominent Republicans, simply and only because his skin was dark. The same hostility lives in the church, and at times inspires the pulpit. The most popular clergyman in our city a few days since gave vent to his feelings in these THE QUESTION OF CASTE. 11 words : " If the black man can be educated by himself, well; but if not, educate him never ;'" adding, as a supple- ment, " That man never lived, and that nation God has never made, that can compel me to educate m// children with the negro." Listening to his words, I remembered that nearly twenty years before, this same clergyman at the World's Temperance Convention in New York, by stamping his feet, endeavored to silence the gentle voice of woman, earnestly pleading in behalf of that sacred cause. The negro, in his upward progress, encounters fearful obstacles. He is not yet received into our academies and colleges, and in many places even the public schools are closed against him. Money, omnipotent as it is to elevate the smallest and most vicious of the Anglo-Saxon race, is unable to secure to him protection from insult in hotels and in the railroad cars. The negro pew still gives the lie to many a pulpit. The loo-ic of events has lifted the black man to the dignity of an American citizen ; let him have all the rights, franchises, and dignities, civil, social, educational, or religious, thereunto belonging. Let him be welcome to the school-house, the church, the workshop, the marts of trade, the offices of government, and the learned pro- fessions. Let him forget his color and the degradation of his race in his noble eflbrts to become intelligent and good. The spirit of caste is not confined to the negro. It has never permitted us to deal justly with the Indian, and has recently developed a feeling of hostility towards the Chinese. We should blush for our civilization, to say nothing of our boasted Christianity, when we remember the cruel 12 THE QUESTION OF CASTE. wrongs practiced upon the aborigines with national sanc- tion. Driven from their homes and the graves of their fathers, robbed of their hxnd by tlie general government, cheated by official agents out of what belonged to them by solemn treaty, charged with crimes committed by abandoned Avhite men in Indian costume, debauched by rumsellers, their women and children murdered by our Custars, Bakers, and Sheridans for a pastime or by " mis- take," it is no wonder the Indian seeks revenge. If the threatened hostilities for which the Western tribes are at this moment making preparation, are pre- vented, all honor to President Grant. It Avill be a victory more truly glorious than any he has ever won in battle. This triumph of Justice in behalf of Peace would wreathe his brow in garlands of amaranthine beauty, and crown his memory with a diadem of richer jewels than ever monarch wore. The Indians who have just visited Washington ask »nly justice in the simple language of truth. To this are they entitled. The only true policy for nations, as for individuals, is implicit obedience to the great law of right, which appeals to the moral sense of all minds, civilized or savage, — " Whatsoever ye ivould that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." No considerations of expediency can justify any departure from this great rule of right. Obedience here, all history testifies, is permanent success, individual or national honor, strength, greatness. Napoleon Bonaparte — whom Emerson calls the "deputy of the nineteenth century" — after all his victories de- clared, " THERE IS NO POWER WITHOUT JUSTICE." The greatest genius, with the amplest opportunity and the profoundest learning, is strong only as he is just. THE QUESTION OF CASTE. 13 In its treatment of the Indians, our government can with propriety exchiim, in the language of Victor Hugo, '' It is easy to be charitable, but God ! it is hard to be just." But hard as it is, by all the failures of dishonest policy and wicked expediency, wherever or by whomso- ever tried, as well as by the sufferings and horrors an extensive war would bring, is our nation urged to do justice to the Indian. This question of caste becomes important as applied to the Mongolian race, which already constitutes a large ^Droportion of the population on our Pacific slope. The politicians of California have already done much to inaugurate a war of races at no distant period. Their spirit of hostility to this inferior race has been incorpo- rated into their statutes, and thus have the sanctions of legislation been given to cruelty and injustice. There is a beautiful theory in mechanics by which " forces are to each other in the same proportion as is the diagonal of their respective parallelograms." This parallelogram of forces is as truly applicable to the moral actions of men and nations as to mechanics. As the enslavement of the negro deluged our land with blood, as our dishonest Indian policy has wrought out similar results, so will injustice to the Chinese, in the end, bring upon our land the same bitter fruits. The poisonous tree of injustice, though jDlanted in golden sands, can produce only the fruit of death. The Chinese come to us as representatives of a race that numbers nearly half the population of the globe — a nation whose civilization flourished when the so-called Christian nations were obscured in barbarism. With the exception of the steam-engine and the electric telegraph, nearly every valuable invention of 14 THE QUESTION OF CASTE. modern times had been in use for centuries in China,, before they had become known to the nations of Europe. They were familiar with porcelain, gunpowder, paper, printing, and the mariner's compass long before these inventions Avere thought of by other nations. No country in the world pays such homage to education as the Chinese. Although their system is not to be com- pared to other nations, their public offices are open for competition to all the graduates of their academies, colleges, and universities. Their people, even the lowest classes, can read and write, and not to understand something of arithmetic is considered a disgrace. Those wdio have come to this country have exhibited great industry, mechanical in- genuity and skill, politeness and economy — lessons of much practical value to the inhabitants of the far West. The Chinese are preeminently a peaceful people, so much so that their military organization, prior to their war with England, was inefficient and contemptible. They have always regarded military ability as evidence of an inferior civilization, though they place a high value upon personal courage, and celebrate the exploits of their heroes in song and story. According to their chronology, Egyptians and Jews, compared with the Chinese, are the merest striplings, and all the great nations of the earth mere babes, still wrapped in the swaddling-clothes of time. They proudly tell us of heroes and philosophers who flourished twenty-seven thousand years before Columbus unfurled the royal banner of Castile upon this Western World, and point with pride to the celestial character of their empire, which has withstood the pressure of four hundred and twenty centuries. If John Chinaman does sometimes exhibit a super- THE QUESTION OF CASTE. 15 abundance of national pride, or an overbearing demeanor towards upstart nations, there is some excuse for him, and our countrymen should be the last to complain. If able to exceed the boastful ardor of American patriotism, his title to celestial would be indisputable, for he would have accomplished what no mere terrestrial citizen could ever do. What these people need after their long exclusion from the outside world, is kind treatment, fair play, and contact with the life and energy of this universal Yankee nation. Sound statesmanship would repeal that selfish and partial legislation which brands the Chinese immigrant alone as a Pariah among races — an injustice so flagrant that it cannot fail to bring disastrous and speedy retribution. A system of oppression will create their animosity and arouse their desire for revenge — a calamity more to be dreaded than the Iwstility of any other nation, for the China of the future will not be that of the past. The great wall has been broken down, and modern science has marked out for that people a new path to national pros- perity and power. They have established schools at various places for the purpose of educating their young men in all the arts of modern warfare, and have several arsenals in successful operation. The navy yard at Shanghai covers about three hundred acres of land, where thirteen hundred skilled workmen are eng-ag-ed in building steamers and gun-boats and all kinds of mu- nitions of war, under the superintendence of thirteen of the most competent European and American mechanics. They launched their first vessel less than two years ago, and now they have five large steamers and several gun- boats nearly completed, fashioned after the most ap- proved models. To enable them to become expert in 16 THE QUESTION OF SUFFRAGE. war, their scientific men are importing valuable libraries of scientific books, which their sinologues are busily engaged in translating into their own language. With a population nearly twice as large as all Europe and thir- teen times larger than the United States, eager to learn all modern improvements, and in addition to all this, with a government of almost unlimited power to carry out its plans, China will soon become a great power in the world, and as competent to comjDcl England to drink tea as she was to dose China with opium in 1842. Let us cherish their friendship by dealing with Chinese immigrants precisely as we do with other foreigners who leave their father-land to become part and parcel of The Great Republic. Overcoming the self-righteous spirit of caste towards the negro, the Indian, and the Chinese, we shall be pre- pared to adopt the noble motto of the French Revolution of 1848, — Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Liberty guarded, and protected by law ; Equality in natural rights ; and that Fraternity which recognizes the common brother- hood of mankind. With minds thoroughly imbued with this liberal and humane spirit, we should be qualified to solve the great question, — AVHO SHALL VOTE? Shall suffrage be universal, or shall it be limited by sex, education, or birthplace ? The ballot, in a true democracy, is the citizen's royal prerogative, to which the firmest prejudices must yield. Like the famous writ of Habeas Corpus, before whose power the strongest prison doors fly open, it brings the oppressed and his oppressor face to face with Justice. To the poor man the ballot is a treasure more precious THE QUESTION OF SUFFRAGE. 17 than gold. It is protection to the weak, knowledge to the ignorant, self-respect and encouragement even to the vile. Rightly used, it signifies manhood, opportunity, enlightenment, and that equality which means equity. Even in its abuse, it is preferable to despotism ; for by their mistakes in choice of men and measures, the people learn wisdom, and thus the ballot becomes an educator. In this country, by constitutional provision, no citizen can legally be deprived of his right to vote " on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.'' In this connection, I recall the noble words of Charles Sumner, — the Nestor of the American Senate, — when speaking of the injustice of denying the ballot on account of race. Mr. Sumner said, " When I am asked what may be the qualifications, I say clearly those things which are attain- able to human effort, not those things tliat by the provi- dence of God are unattainable. Sir, it would be an insult to God and to humanity to say that such a thing can be a qualification." With equal force, I apply these words to the injustice of disfranchising one half of the Ameri- can people on account of sex. As long ago as Edward I., in England, writs of sum- mons were issued, declaring it to be " « most equitable ride, that what concerns all should he approved of hy all." Woman is as much concerned in having wise and just laws for the government and education of her children, as well as for her own protection, and I may add, is as dependent upon equitable regulations of society for all the grandest aims of life, as it is possible for man to be. In his celebrated Essay on Civil Government, Locke tells us that " there is nothing more evident than that crea- tures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born 18 THE QUESTION OF SUFFRAGE. to the same advantages of nature and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal, one amongst another, with- out subordination or subjection." It is true that among the ancients, mankind were divided into two classes, the few who were masters, and the many who were slaves. Women were included in the degraded class, and were compelled to perform the least honorable services. Her person was either taken by force or made the subject of barter and trade ; even fathers regularly sold their daughters in marriage, without their consent. The Roman Civil Law — the grandest monument of that world-conquering empire — held women in such complete subjection to their imperious lords, that the hus- band had the power of life and death over the wife, while she could have no remedy in law against him. The polite and cultured Athenian regarded woman as a mere toy, rather than as a companion and an equal ; while the rude and more ignorant Spartan honored her only for her war- like achievements. In France, not a hundred years ago, a peasant was ploughing, with a donkey and a woman for a team. Both were harnessed to the plough, both pulled alike, and both were alike subject to the lash. Even this was more humane than the laws of England, which recently per- mitted parents and guardians to harness their daughters and wards to human donkeys for life, vinculo matrimonii, and gave the donkey power to " beat his wife in moderation," or " to imprison her in any room of his house," if she wouldn't pull. The law, in Europe and the United States, now gives the husband, upon the completion of the marriage ceremony (which in the Methodist Church has been very much im- THE QUESTION OF SUFFRAGE. 19 proved of late, by striking out the wife's promise to obey), a complete title to all the goods and chattels of the wife, and the rents and profits of her lands. In most of the States, the law gives the intemperate husband the legal right to sell even the wife's earnings or her personal clothing for rum, while in several States the husband's power to cowhide his wife " in moderation " still remains. Thus are wives to-day, as far as legal obligation goes, in actual servitude. Tf, after twenty centuries of masculine legislation, so many legal disabilities dishonor the statute-books of the most advanced nations on the globe, is it not high time for woman to demand the ballot ? Buckle tells us that '• the boasted civilizations of antiquity were eminently one-sided, and that they fell because society did not advance in all its parts, but sacri- ficed some of its constituents, in order to secure the prog- ress of others." Plato was the first to discover the dualism in material objects and mental ideas, and the first to acknowledge the social and political equality of the two sexes. We have experimented with one-sided legislation long enough. Equity knows no distinction of race or sex. The highest government is an absolute monarchy, limited to the individual, and implies perfect control over one's self The next in rank is a democracy, based on the free con- sent of all the governed. It is manifestly as unjust for one half the citizens to sit in judgment upon the right of the other half to share in that government to which they are subject, as was the attempt of the mother country to compel the original thirteen Colonies to pay the tax on tea. " Men," in the Declaration of Independence, should always be interpreted 20 THE QUESTION OF SUFFRAGE. in its generic sense, to signify mankind ; and the word " rights " should comprehend the fullest exercise of one's faculties, to secure and protect which is instituted human government, " deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed." If it fjiils to secure these rights, then it becomes the right of the people, not half of them, " to alter or to abolish it." Such is the exact language of Jefferson's great bill of indictment against Geora;e III. The Kino- was charjjed in one of the counts with " giving his assent to acts of pretended legislation," which imposed taxes on the people without their consent. In the great trial by battle, the King was found guilty, and deprived of the brightest jew- els of his crown. In violation of the very principles sus- tained by that verdict, we tax women who are entirely unrepresented, not only without their consent, but in spite of their earnest and repeated remonstrance. I know it is said that women are now represented by men better than they could represent themselves. This is the answer of the slave-holder. It has its roots in the law of the strong- est, and is a type of that disposition to command which orio-inated in barbarism. It is enout»:h that woman has never given her consent to be thus represented. All such representation is misrepresentation. With greater pro- priety can men become proxies for each other in the elec- tive franchise than for women. " As the earth took on its rotary motion, its feminine law of control and harmony, so must society." Our laws are one-sided, masculine. They are corporeal, but soulless ; external, but destitute of spirit. They are eminently punitive and unequal. The feminine side nearest the heart is wanting. They will never succeed until supplied with those qualities of soul, unity, restraint, and harmony, which woman alone can give. THE QUESTION OF SUFFRAGE. 21 The objection that difference of opinion woukl produce discord in fhmihes, is a virtual confession of that matri- monial servitude which the law of equal freedom would abolish. As society advances, the position of woman in the family and in the home circle is found to Ije one of control, not by command and authority, which are always selfish and repellent, but by tlie generous sympathies of her nature, and the gushing tenderness of her love. The government is only the family on a larger scale ; and those same qualities which, by a law of nature, enable her to control in all well-regulated families, would be felt also in the state, restraining, harmonizing, and every- where elevating society. Nor should it be feared that by giving her the ballot, — the only power in a free country which can secure that perfect equality to which she is entitled, — that woman will degrade herself. A masculine woman will not control the state. The feminine law, which is every- where the law of peace, is what our government needs. Woman's control in politics, if exercised at all, will be felt at the ballot-box and in legislation, by the exercise of her womanly qualities of endurance, firmness, j)iirity and peace. Her intuition and conscientiousness will be- come a beacon-light, pointing out the true path of prog- ress, harmonizing the law of justice with the law of love, and overcoming the cold-hearted selfishness of corrupt politicians by the irresistible might of a higher example. If woman is ignorant of political economy and the science of government, it is no reason she should be deprived of her just rights. Unfortunately ignorance is not confined to woman, nor is intelligence always joined to the elective franchise. Equity, justice, right, always harmonize with the wisest 22 THE QUESTION OF SUFFRAGE. expediency, and awarding to woman an equal share in the government with man will l^e no excej)tion to this universal law. Whatever qualifications may be imposed upon suffrage, let them be equally applicable to both sexes, and such as ^^ are attainable hy human effort T The question of education as a qualification for the ballot involves many principles which the limits of this address will not allow me to discuss. Two thino's the o-overnment is bound to do. It should impose such regulations as are necessary to its own per- manence and safety, and should encourage general intel- ligence among the people. In an absolute monarchy, where all the subjects were A^irtuous and peaceful, ignorance might not be so danger- ous to the ruler, and he might have security with very little general knowledge among the people. But in a de- mocracy, where the people take part in the government, where all its just powers are dependent upon their con- sent, intelligence becomes indispensable ; and long ago the truth that the welfare and permanence of free insti- tutions are based upon both the intelligence and virtue of the people, became axiomatic. A single vote may decide the fate of the republic. How easy it is to impose upon those unable to read, is illustrated by the fraudulent treaty made with the Sioux, by which our government obtained a deed to future States by falsely interpreting its contents to Red Cloud as a treaty of peace. This deception has already cost us an average of six hundred lives per annum, and more than ten times the amount of an honest sale, in military expenses. To what further calamities it may lead, time alone can tell. So THE QUESTION OF LABOR. 23 by one single voter, unable to read his ballot, the liber- ties of a whole nation may be overthrown. By restrict- ing the ballot to those only able to read it, there would be no danger from state education, and at the same time such a restriction would encourage general intelligence. The limitation by birthplace is especially important in view of Asiatic immigration. If we allow every foreigner to vote who has been in this country a few years, regard- less of his interest in its welflire or his relation to other governments, we should jeopardize the permanency of free institutions. On the other hand, many persons come to us so thoroughly imbued with the true spirit of repub- licanism, that it would be manifestly unjust to place them so long upon probation. It is to be hoped that sufficient wisdom exists in our national legislature to frame a naturalization law that will remedy our present evils, and be better adapted, with safety to ourselves, to do ample justice to all who may come to us from other lands. Thus guarded, the ballot in the hands of both sexes will be at once the bulwark and perpetuity of libertj^, and that peaceful artillery of the people against which no despotism or injustice can stand. The next problem which presses upon the American people for solution is THE QUESTION OF LABOR AND ITS RELATION TO CAPITAL. While our political system is theoretically an exact re- versal of the monarchies of the Old World, unfortunately our laws regulating labor and the finances of the coun- try are directly copied from old monarchies, and are based upon the aristocratic idea, that labor is dishonorabUf and that it is the right of capital to control it. 24 THE QUESTION OF LABOR As an illustration of the nnwise inequality of our pres- ent laws, by which a few persons become rich at the cost of the many, I refer you to the National Banks, in which Sooo, 000,000 in government bonds are employed for banking purposes. These bonds are yielding the bank- ers $30,000,000 annuall}^ as interest, in addition to the $30,000,000 they receive as interest upon their own notes, which these bonds secure, making a net income, after deducting taxes, of $54,000,000 per annum, which is over twenty-six per cent, upon the amount actually paid for these bonds. Legislation that permits such wholesale robbery of those who perforui the work of the country will only find its parallel in the " Institutes of Menu," written nearly three thousand years ago, in which the rate of interest on money ranged from fifteen to sixty per cent. Instead of adopting a policy that would tend to dis- tribute wealth equitably among the people in harmony with our political system, our legislation is rapidly con- centrating in the hands of soulless monopolies and cor- porations, by giving them exclusive privileges incompati- ble with the interests of the people at large. So great has become the power of money in the government that it already elects legislators and controls their acts. In my own State the meeting of the legislature annually brings foreboding doubt and gloom upon the minds of our people, while the day of its final adjournment is one of general joy. What a comment on our civilization, for three persons in every hundred to own more than half of all the real estate and personal property in the nation, and to compel the laboring classes to pay not less than nine per cent, for its use, when, by the Census Reports, the aggregate in- AND ITS RELATION TO CAPITAL. 25 crease of all the wealth in the country has not exceeded three and a half per cent, per annum. In addition to all this, our present system of taxation is a monstrous injustice to the industrial classes, and " silently transfers a large share of their earnings to the hands of others who have never lifted a finger to perform any productive labor." In that wonderful romance entitled "The Man who laughs," in Gwynplaine's speech to the Peers of England, Victor Hugo portrays the exact condition of the English people at the beginning of the eighteenth century. " My Lords, — Do yoii know who pays the taxes tliat you vote ? Those who are dying. Alas ! you deceive yourselves. You augment the poverty of the poor to augment the riches of the rich. It is tlie reverse that must be done. AVhat, take from the laborer to give to the idler ! Take from the ragged to give to the overfed ! Beware of the laws you decree, for the multitudes are in affo?iy, and that which is below — in dying — brings death upon that which is above. Ah, this society is false. One day the true society will come. Then there will be no more lords ; there will be free, living men." Senator Sprague, in his speech on the Tenure of Office Act, says : — " Can legislators find anything to console and comfort them in their examination of the state of domestic society and social condition among the people of the United States ? I know something of the character of the people whom you have been taught to despise under other govern- ments ; and if I am an impartial judge, that examination has given to me the belief that American society to-day has perhaps less virtue, less morality, in it, than that of any civilized government in the world. Is that not the fault of your legislation ? The difference between those who possess acci- dental fortunes and those who live by their daily labor is the cause of the demoralization. It is the striving of those who are rich to be richer, and the striving of the poor to imitate the rich ; and in that contest virtue is lost. Where is there a father who leaves his house Avith any security ? Where is there a mother who sends her son into the woi'Id, subject to the 26 THE QUESTION OF LABOR. temptations that are about him, without alarm? Where is there a husband who closes his doors with satisfaction ? Where is the father, who has an anxious care over his daugliter, vviJUng to have her leave his eye and his jirotection to begin the struggle against the temptations around her? There is to this an echo in the heart of every man who heai'S me. Is that a comfortable state of things on which Senators rely in safety and in security ? You stand in the track of an avalanche, you are on the brink of a precipice, and know it not. There is a paralysis throughout this body and throughout the country." It cannot be denied that most of the evils which afflict society are greatly increased, if not directly caused, by unjust legislation. It has created already in America a moneyed aristocracy more dangerous to liberty than all the armies of the Rebellion. It has prostrated our foreign commerce and paralyzed domestic trade. Industry is burdened by it, and distrust is universal. It has built palaces for the few, and now taxes the men who live in hovels to keep up the establishments. It clothes gold gamblers in purple and fine linen, and honest laborers in rags. It keeps ten thousand comfortable dwellings in New York City vacant, while those who built them are crowded together in dis- comfort, because they have not money to pay high rents. It has filled the land with poverty, idleness, intemperance, and crime. So great and numerous have become the frauds and thefts of men in office in the civil service, that Mr. Jenckes told Congress that the passage of a single bill would save annually more than $50,000,000 to the government. But neither the bill to reform the civil service or the one to abolish the franking privilege will become laws, so long as Congressmen continue to en- courage official corruption and pay a premium on fraud. All these burdens must be borne by those who toil. AND ITS RELATION TO CAPITAL. 27 " How long, Lord, how long " shall the brain and muscle of labor — the only true source of all individual and national wealth — be sheltered in hovels and fed on husks ? All these unjust laws must be changed. Taxes, which in consequence of our capital-protecting system are levied indirectly upon the consumer, should be laid upon the property or its annual profits, increasing the rate in geometrical ratio in proportion to its accumulation, thus limiting by taxation that power of riches which is incon- sistent with and dangerous to a republican government. What right has one man to own all the houses, while those who built them are without a shelter ? Who g:ave permission to wealth to buy up all the land, and by what we term ownership have the right to say at what rates it should be tilled, or whether it should be tilled at all ? If men have the right to measure value by the neces- sities of the receiver, then our present high rates of mterest in government bonds is right, and the un- numbered evils arising from our financial policy are all legitimate. When called to testify in a case of extortion from the government, a prominent business man said, " If I thought the government wanted the property and must have it, and could not possibly do without it, if I had given only fifteen dollars for it, I would ask two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for it, or as much more as I thought I could get. I would take advantage of the necessities of the government just as I would of the necessities of a private individual in any business trans- action." Such is the system of commercial ethics upheld by the unwise legislation of Cons-ress. 28 THE QUESTION OF LABOR It is based upon that monstrous principle, or ratlier that total lack of principle, so often quoted — Ihat the price of anything should he determined hy what it ivill bring. The same logic would compel a starving man to sell his life- long services for bread, or permit avarice, for a glass of cold water, to secure all the fortune of one dying with thirst. It would be only taking " advantage of his necessity," and determining price by ^^ tvhat it will bring ^' instead of regulating price by cost or the labor of producing the article.^ the only equitable rule for the regulation of all values. This principle, recognizing labor as the foundation and source of all wealth, becoming the law of the land, would destroy the antagonisms of society and harmonize all human interests. This will not be done by politicians. A system of money which in a single week can legally rob the people of a hundred million dollars, and divide it between the robbers and the politicians, will not be easily abolished. So long as the toiling millions will pay these unseen taxes upon the food they eat, clothes they wear, books they read, fuel that warms, and houses that shelter them, — all produced by their labor, — for the purpose of keeping a few men rich, and some party in power, so lono' will these wrono;s remain. What this country needs to-day is united political effort among those striving to obtain an honest living by the sweat of their own brows, either with hand or brain. Divided, the working classes become an easy conquest. Mobs and strikes will not avail. Capital can fdl the places of our mechanics with half-paid pauper labor from Asia, and what can they do about it ? To vent their spite upon the innocent Chinese would be a crime. They must either cooperate equitably with employers or AND ITS RELATION TO CAPITAL. 29 succumb to capital, work at reduced wages, and hear their children's cry for bread. " Tis hard upon the many, Hard, viiipitied by the few, To starve and die for want of work, Or live half starved with work to do." As a large share of the people's burdens come from corruption in public officers, let the peoj^le demand integrity and capacity as qualifications in their public servants. Let them demand that dishonesty in public office be punished with perpetual disfranchisement. If Republican and Democratic Congressmen cannot comprehend the importance of this labor question, let the people unite and elect those who can. Ignoring party, let Justice be the rallying cry of all. The policy of Congress in squandering the public domain upon a few monopolies in violation of the rights of labor, is a gigantic swindle. The public lands belong to the people of the United States. Instead of allowing them to be given to private corporations for speculative purposes, — granting to a single corporation land enough to make six States as large as Massachusetts, — let them be sacredly held in trust for the homes of actual settlers. This policy would change the desert into fruitful fields before the end of this century. It would transfer the sickly and discouraged dwellers in overcrowded cities to the virgin soil of the glorious West, where the honest laborer finds a sure re- ward, where healthful airs bring back the glow of youth, and where pearly dew-drops, genial showers, and beaming suns all join to bless his toil. Those vast empires of unoccupied lands would be dotted with happy homes, where the husbandman could 30 THE QUESTION OF TEMPERANCE. plant trees and eat their luscious fruits ; '' where he could rear and educate his children in honest labor, in frugal habits, in useful knowledge, in liberal reading and intelligent conversation, in robust vigor of body and mind, in gentle dispositions, cultured tastes, unaffected manners, domestic duties, and humanitarian uses ; where he could sow flowers, whose beauty and fragrance would send nutrition to the soul, whose opening petals are up- lifted and longing for the everlasting beauty and the eternal perfume ; where in manly independence and dignity, free from anxiety for bread, he could equilibrate labor by repose, hunger by the frugal meal, the care and trouble of the world by domestic felicity, and give to the nation its brightest jewels, sons and daughters, to dazzle in its crown." As equitable relations become established in society, the hours of daily toil will lessen. Time will be had for study, thought, perception, reflection, and comparison, which, coupled with practical experience, will develop the minds of the working classes in the direction of invention, so that the abstract and concrete forces of nature shall be harnessed for laborious human use. Thus the sons and daughters of labor will be able to study science, literature, and art, and, above all, to acquire some knowledge of themselves. This brings me to the consideration of the QUESTION OF TEMPERANCE, which challenges man's highest thought. This question is old, but not well understood. Men have been looking at the effects rather than the cause of intemperance. These causes must be understood and removed before this world-wide wave of desolation shall be stayed. If THE QUESTION OF TEMPERANCE. 31 alcohol, tobacco, opium, or any others thniili are needful, either for the human body or soul, the principle of total abstinence is wrong-, and their use, in moderation, right. Physiological temperance is the moderate use of things of right quality, and until their quality is made right, forl/ids that they should be used at all. Hitherto this question has been discussed upon the premise that alcohol is really of some use to the human organism, that it does impart strength to the weak, and that all the evil comes from its abuse. This theory is upheld by physicians all over the land, and generally believed by the people. Upon this monstrous fallacy Science must bring in her verdict, and natural laws, as expressed in physiological chemistry, j)ronounce sen- tence. This theory confounds the process of stimulation with that of nutrition, which error underlies all the evils drunkenness inflicts. When people understand that between all living tissues and alcohol there is an eternal antas-onism ; that beino;: neither digested nor assimilated, it is incapable of fur- nishing nutriment to any part of the animal economy ; and that it stimulates only because of the efforts of the physical system to expel it as a poison, hostile to its very life, they will have taken one step in the right direction. One great cause of intemperance is the unhygienic food upon which people generally subsist. Stimulating and highly seasoned dishes produce an unnatural thirst, which water will not quench ; and an abundance of ole- aginous substances produces an appetite for tobacco — twin brother to rum, and to the inner man the worse enemy of the two. 82 THE QUESTION OF TEJilPERANCE. The dietetic habits of a people determine not only their physical strengtli, but also their moral and intellec- tual status, and extend even to the houses in which they live. This is illustrated from the Chinese idea of archi- tecture, which may be seen in their pagodas, built tall and slender, like the rice plant which constitutes their principal article of food. The Dutch build houses of one story, — and every addition must be on the ground floor, — spread out like the cabbage upon which they depend for sour-krout. Who ever saw a Avild Irishman who failed either to build the first story of his house imder ground, or bring the ground partly to the roof on the outside, thus working out the burrowing habits of the potato upon which for centuries his ancestors fed ? Indeed, so intimate is the relation between the pros- perity of a people and the food they eat, that the number of marriages is said to depend upon the price of corn. The temperance reform depends upon physiological reform, which must commence in the kitchen, where the women do all the voting and make all the laws. Thus to woman suffrage, either at home or at the polls, must we look for those prohibitory laws which will prove the final solution of this great question. So long as the people Avill select drunkards for high offices, — fill the senate-house with sots, — very little help to temperance need be expected from the govern- ment. If, however, it continues to derive its revenues from license, — legalizing poverty, misery, and crime, — it should Ije held responsible for all evil results. No man should be allowed to sell intoxicating liquors who would not give security to pay all losses in time and THE QUESTION OF RELIGION. 33 money occasioned by the liquor sold. He should be held responsible in damages for all assaults, batteries, thefts, riots, robberies, manslaughters, and murders — for all injuries either to the person or to property — caused by drunkenness. I would make the turning of the God-made fruits — grapes, cherries, peaches, apples, as well as potatoes and grains — into poisonous man-made liquids, a felony, and punish it as such; and every man who would desecrate your beautiful Connecticut Valley or any other spot of God's green footstool with a tobacco plant, I would jjanish to the o-enial clime of Alaska. The last great subject that threatens to convulse this age is THE QUESTION OF RELIGION. Shall CEcumenical councils or so-called Christian Unions be successful in their attempts to cramp the human mind, " that lofty thing," and crush out free thought, in this afternoon of the nineteenth century, on the American Continent, where the very sands sparkle with the light of freedom, and the air is vocal with its praise ? Shall all peoples, of whatever race or clime or creed, have the in- estimable privilege of worshipping the Infinite according to the dictates of their own consciences, or must they be compelled to worship according to the conscience or for- mula of somebody else, no matter whether it be a Cath- olic Pope or some equally infallible Protestant sinner ? That spirit of blind sectarianism and misguided zeal that would put theological dogmas into the Constitution of the United States, or trample upon the rights and con- sciences of any portion of the American people, would be worthy the age of religious persecution, but not of the Christian name. These fanatics must be overwhelmed 34 THE QUESTION OF RELIGION. with defeat. Arbitrary authority must not overcome that central principle of Protestantism, the right of pri- vate judgment in all matters of faith and conscience. Wherever Christianity has become perverted or corrupt, where its true sjDirit is lost, or its vitality smothered be- neath the gilittering ornaments of a cold formality, there will it oppose every system of education untrammeled by its own narrow creeds, and jealous of religious liberty, it will demand uncomplaining conformity to its own system. But true Christianity encourages the most liberal sys- tem of education, and demands the most rigid scrutiny. It never attempts to weld itself to the State for the pur- pose of enforcing its precepts by flames and fagots, or by the more modern methods of political favors or disabili- ties. Its kingdom is not of this world. It teaches the spiritual unity of the race, and overcomes the spirit of caste. It inculcates true democracy for both sexes and hospitality to strangers. It enjoins just compensation to the laboring classes, and scourges the money-changers. It commands cleanliness of both sides of the platter or person, and places temperance on true physiological prin- ciples among the cardinal virtues. And finally it teaches a religion of the heart, — tender in sympathy, active in charity, — feeding the hungry, clothing the ragged, teach- ing the ignorant, forgiving enemies, and loving all. This country and this age are propitious for the spread of a pure religion and the upbuilding of the true church. When America was beneath the ancient ocean, f{ir down in secret places Providence was at work with fires and retorts and crucibles, transmuting and refining by a divine chemistry, and laying by treasures incalculable for human use. What solid and precious things lie waiting beneath the soil, to hear the command. Come forth ! What THE QUESTION OF KELIGION. 35 mountains of granite, what measures of coal, what rivers of oil ! All these treasures of the earth — iron, lead, copper, marble, salts, beautiful crystals, sparkling dia- monds, with exhaustless mines of silver and gold, as well as the salubrious airs above — all point to America as the New Jerusalem destined to become " a rejoicing and her people a joy," a land of religious toleration to all nations, and kindred, and tongues, upon which the dark clouds of superstitious bigotry should never rest. Nay, more ; the age demands that here should be the universal temple in which antagonistic creeds shall be lost in the oneness of truth, and all varieties of worship blend in a divine harmony of wisdom, justice, goodness, faith, hope, and universal love. Such are the questions of to-day, which we are com- missioned to help work out. Now is the time for work. Age, and youth, and the strength of middle life must pre- pare the way for the incoming reign of Justice in the world. To you, students of former years, and these grand young men and women of to-day; aye, and to this all prosperous church to which this school belongs, — al- ready powerful and great, — has humanity a right to look for the true, out-wrought answers to these difficult problems. Let not the magnitude of the work dishearten any, but rather let its grandeur encourage all to self-sacri- ficing and heroic deeds, remembering that all progress is with struggle, that of agony is horn all highest pleasure, and FROM THE CRYSTALLIZED PANGS OF CRUCIFIXION COME ALL DI- VINEST JOYS. ^bva^^ yED>jx^mi> )>i3^::q>>3c>>o^ 1^ j>.>2: ^3 3 i: ^. ^ ^:^ :>^. • ?3 >> .Jir^^rj •:i>X3iD :^:yym> :>p:>^ jy^3:^yj:>3i ■y>iy'm>yy >:^x>:>i^'2>>>)t m y'^.^.y J> j> y -^^ >^ym^ -> y^^ ^^ :»2>^ : m:>y y2>2^ y^y^^m^y =js^ j> :^r>j> y-yp?^''y ^Jjy ' ' j> y:> .3j>:>.:^ >s> ^^ :>'^ :>y. :>^5>> .)'^ >.u>"! LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 011 290 198 A