| Show favor LAW OF THE strongest kebus woman I 1 D an unequal political state na beason for it editor in our enlightened day liberty of the individual ng the estimate to which ha is in moat cases properly en titled presumed in favor of all and those who contend against it and for limitations restrictions and prohibit tiona should assume the burden of proof the presumption is in I 1 vor of freedom it is a maxim in all governmental affairs that there should be no restraint not required by the general good that the law should be no respecter of persons but all should be treated alike except where a difference of treatment la required by positive reasons yet when we meet the exist ing limitation upon the liberty of the opposite sex those who maintain it cot only refuse to affirmatively aho y the of euch a limitation but de miaad that the negative bo provan be ond a reasonable raa doubt and that before a prejudiced jury of whom it is as dilli cult for the women and the advocate of their rights of suffrage to get a hearing as it is in ordinary cases to get a verdict who say men only are fit for government and that women are un nt certainly nave the affirmative of the question and unless they can prove their it should be rejected not onla that but denying the rights to women that are awarded to men and recommending partiality they should be held to the strictest decree of proof that would be held good law in the commonest kind of a caad but not so here it adems the women need not enter court unless prepared not only to prove the negative but prepared to answer every argument or imaginary raised by the opposition I 1 realize that a cause or practice sup ported by almost universal usage and a heavy weight ol 01 may with color of right claim a in its layer J wil accept this favor able and ia ting and other to follow between now and the sitting of the state convention should they te deemed worthy publish endeavor to prove the negative and will consent that judgment may be against me unless 1 can show my judge has been tampered with it is eaid the civil and political law as we now find it embodies the wisdom of all past agea based upon and imi proved by experience from the earliest timea down to the present that dar bog all those agea the judgment of our ancestors haa rejected the equality of abe sexes we doubt that woman were denied equality on any other ground than custom prejudice As for judgment based upon any ex we know auca thing ex 1 alsted if when the authority of men aver women were first established it had been the result of a careful con eide ration for the good of all or the re ault of experience of governments of of men over women women over men and mixed governments certainly we could conclude that tho past offers some reabon for the present gratice pr atice or at least that at the time the caverns co verns ment of men only was adopted it was for the best but who does not know that was never the case the subordination of the weaker aex to the stronger never waa the result of delab aeration or any thought of the good of society Boci ety from the eirlis st dawn of society every woman from the value at tallied to her was found in a state of bondage to some man the law when it came into existence legalized what waa then merely the result of physical strem th and attached to it the quality of legal right and those who had already been forced to obedience now became bound by law to it the law of the strongest being the origin of the inequality now existing between the sexes it ought not to entitle the present to any presumption in its favor neither should the fact that it has over bince so existed tor it ia too well known that power once in band is seldom released these over whom it is exercised become the stronger and especially when the exercise of such power ia authorized and obedience to it eo joined by the diac ace of ages li is aard that women are by nature subject to men that is the men say so was there aver at any time a dmn aaion of one class over another that did not seem natural to those who posse peed it at various times and in various nations there have existed a class and another of slaves and at such times to the most cultivated it seemed natural and the only natural condition of the human race even aristotle held and honestly held this opinion in england andin and in cur own country not lone airo it was considered that ahe negro waa by his very nature a eotavo and marked by bis creator for such the limitation on the rights of domn ia almost an universal custom and departure from it quite naturally appears unnatural but we ask how and why natural the custom however aai eliat limits the rights of women I 1 conclude affords no presumption and should not create any in tavor of any bobial arrangement which places women in a social or political position subject to men D D HOUTZ PROVO jan 25 1895 |
