in any one induce the belief that woman is the inferior of man, merely
_because she is a woman_.

No business firm could remain together in harmony for a single day, if
it were understood that one of the partners assumed the position that he
was superior to the other, who, prior to entering into the partnership,
had been received in the same social circles, and who had brought into
the business an equal proportion of funds and of business talent. And
doubly preposterous would the assumption be, if it were based on the
fact that the assumer was the larger or physically stronger man; and,
because possessed of more of the animal nature than his partner, it
therefore became his right to dictate to and control the other.

Such an assumption as this is no more absurd, nor is the reasoning upon
which it is based more illogical, than that which asserts that woman,
because she is a woman, is therefore an inferior, to be ruled at the
discretion of her husband or sons in her own home; and that she ought to
be contented to be considered such, and to be so treated by her own
nation and in her own family. The carrying out of such an idea is more
than absurd. It is monstrous. It is an imposition that has only been
tolerated because the exactions are not in every case so bad as the
system is capable of enforcing; and it is one from which every advocate
of Christian liberty, to be consistent with his profession, should
withdraw both countenance and toleration.

The history of woman's wrongs has for ages been written in tears, often
with her life-blood; and yet the volume has, in most instances, been
concealed in her own bosom, notwithstanding its fearful weight. But if,
at any time, as sometimes happens, unable to keep it hidden longer, she
unfolds the pages of her grief to others, what an outcry is raised