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EQUAL RIGHTS ANI WOMAN SUF x FRAGE.Organization of an Aosociation.In responso to a published call, inserted in the different papers of the city, a number of ladies and gentlemen, to the number of forty, assembled in the lecture room of Professor A. Curtis, yesterday afternoon, at No. 231 West Fourth street, between Plum and Central avenue.The meeting was oalled to order at half-past 3 o’clock, and Mr. D. Lamb appointed Chairman, and Mrs. E. V. Burns chosen as Secretary. Mr. Lamb, on taking the chair, briefly explained the object of the meeting to be “for the purpose of taking measures to organize an Equal Rights Association,” And more particularly in favor of “Woman suffrage.” Prof. A. Curtis then addressed the meeting. He spoke* in favor of ‘Manhood Suffrage,” and said:“Equality of rights is nature’s plan,In following nature is the march of man.”In mental talent and moral dispositions or propensities, and consequently in the development and direction of all their capabilities of action, aud the diversities of results produced, the human family always have been widely different, and they always will be so. Could we place, to-day, all the citizens of Cincinnati on the same Beale and degree of mental and moral endowments, and lay before them the , same inducements in theory, to obedience to mental, moral and physical laws, ana the same warnings againsttransgression, a single generation would so alter their modes of observing, thinking, fooling and acting, that, like the planets in tho heavens, every individual would be jostled, more or less, from the plaue from which he started, and tho equilibrium would be annihilated. Nay, even the present generation would be so influenced by their eurroundiugs that the stupidest observer could not fail to mark the differences. Some men would neglect to improve, and others would misapply the capabilities that they possess, while yet others wrould make the best of all their powers, circumstances and opportunities, and, instead of sinking themselves below the plane from which they started, would qualify themselves for higher spheres and occupations, and superior onjoymeuts.By the equality of man, then, Is-not meant an equal quality of mental, moral, or physical endowment, nor an equality of social standing, of wealth, of influence, nor any other acquisition or possession. Tho true meaning of the ordinary expressions, “Equality of rights,” and “Manhood suffrage,” is, the right and the permission to be, to become aud to do any thing and every thing of which wo are capable, limited only by tho prohibition to deprive any other persou of the same right and exercise—equality of rights,not possessions.The question, then—what are the rights of any branch of humanity, or any individual of it?—is answered ouly by showing what that branch or individual is, or is capable of becoming or doing. Let us first lllustrato this by reference to inanimate objects. A stone that possesses the qualities firmness and durability is suited, iu its roughest forms, to the foundation, iu water, of an elegant superstructure. Hence, in these forms great quantities of it were sunken in the water at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, on which to build a fort. ah it rose above the water it was too rude to
Newspaper Details
Cincinnati Commercial
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Fri, Nov 27, 1868
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Cincinnati A.
OH, USA 13 Mar 2021
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