This objection has some weight; it is not altogether so unreasonable as
most of the others raised. But even here the event dreaded does not
necessarily follow, any more than because men are allowed to vote
therefore their business and families must suffer in consequence.
Prudent men, when they accept offices of public trust, so order their
business arrangements that they shall be properly attended to without
allowing the one to interfere with the other. So also would prudent
women. It might with as much propriety be argued that a farmer must not
be permitted to accept any public office, not even that of juryman,
because the acceptance of it might call him from home, either in
Springtime or harvest; nor a doctor to become a candidate for public
honors, lest some one might be sick while he was away,--as to argue that
a woman must not be permitted to take an active part in public affairs
because the house is to be attended to, and the comfort and well-being
of her husband and children provided for. Are the recognized duties and
ordinary occupations of women necessarily so all-engrossing as to be
inconsistent with any other demand upon their time or thoughts; or of so
much graver importance than the duties which men owe to their business
and families, as to require her constant presence and the entire
devotion of all her energies; while men, who have families and large
business transactions on their hands, are justified in devoting a large
portion of their time and attention to other objects, whether
literature, science, or politics?

There is no more honorable position on earth than that of a wife,
possessing the undivided affection of a good husband, surrounded by an
orderly and interesting family of children. Neither is there a more
honorable position among men than that of a husband, possessing the
undivided affection of a good wife, who sympathizes with him in his