And then there are the unmarried women, who were referred to previously,
that have not these household claims resting upon them. The objection
concerning the neglect of households does not touch their cases at all;
for they have neither children nor husbands to be neglected. That
unmarried women, who step out from the "private sanctity of their
homes," often accomplish much good by entering on the so much censured
public career, the lives of Florence Nightingale, Miss McPherson, and
Miss Dix, if there were no others, amply prove.
It is argued by some that, if women would exercise the privilege of the
franchise, she must be prepared to take the field as a soldier, or enter
the navy, as circumstances might require, in time of war. History
informs us that women have given valuable assistance in time of war,
even taking the field and fighting nobly for their country when their
valor was needed; and, in our own day, there is on record an instance of
a woman commanding a vessel during a long voyage over exceedingly
dangerous seas, and bringing it successfully into the desired port. But
apart from this, the fact is, the argument is simply used as a bugbear
to frighten the timid and deter them from claiming their just position,
both social and civil. By law, certain classes of men are exempt from
war, except in extreme cases, so that by no means all who vote, now, are
expected to fight.
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