The Highland Weekly News (Hillsboro), May 26, 1870

Female Suffrage.

      I see in the News two articles on Female Suffrage, one for, the other against. Both are very well, considering the stand points each writer has taken. I will try to answer some of the questions urged against Female voting, and them—well!

     “Would it degrade or demoralize woman to vote?” I think not.

     Where women have voted in some of the churches they stand as fair as those who have not. I am sure the simple act of voting is not degrading to either male or female.

     “Would it degrade or demoralize women to mingle with men in the affairs of the Government?” I think not. The matter has been fully tested the last ten years, during which nearly every man has urged the women to attend political gatherings, both in day and night, and many did attend, and who will say that it degraded or demoralized them? Too late in the day to use that objection.

    “Would it benefit the Government (people) for the women to vote?” To answer this question, I will cite one case and suppose another. It was said by many Union men that the influence of the Union women during the great Rebellion, was one of the means that saved our Government. If this be so, every Union man would say that woman’s influence did benefit the Government. The Democrats who tried to defeat the Union party would say her influence did harm. Should the women vote, and thereby stop all the doggeries and gambling hells, the Temperance and moral men would say their votes did good, while the “roughs” and “whisky ring” would say they did harm.

      “Are you in favor of woman voting?” Well—hem! If I knew they would vote to stop whisky drinking and whisky selling, then, yes! I, like brother “Noah,” want more light on the subject, before I take a stand pro or con. Yours truly,

FLORA.

 In 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment gave black men the right to vote. This amendment drew Americans into the discussion of women’s suffrage; both for and against. The two major women’s suffrage organizations (National Woman Suffrage Association and American Woman Suffrage Association) could not agree on the Amendment that did not give women the ability to vote. Most Americans were not in favor of women voting. Women were largely removed from politics in the 1870s, but some issues we more considered more appropriate for women. These issues included abolition, education, temperance, and some religious matters. This worry about women being demoralized by voting was in part a worry that she would be exposed to the world’s evils and thus have her moral nature compromised. In that day and age women were largely the ones that promoted the morality of the nation. Alcohol consumption was mostly a men’s activity in the 19th century. Temperance organizations argued that drunk men caused physical, economic, and other hardships to the family and thus it was logical for women if enabled to vote, to do so against excessive drinking. 

Women were a key component in the coalition supporting Prohibition. While Prohibition and the Women’s Suffrage movement drew organizational strength from each other, there was no national alliance and at times butter rivalry between the two causes. Those against prohibition tended to argue against the women’s vote, because women (who made up the majority in the movement) could then vote prohibition into law. While Prohibition was less popular among Suffragist the less extreme Temperance movement was far more popular; with renowned suffragists such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton campaigning for both suffrage and temperance. Anthony During the “great Rebellion” or Civil War, women served mostly from their homes: raising money, goods, medical supplies and some women nursed. These support systems helped fill the gap that the Government was unable to fill. 

The Ohio founded Union Party was largely comprised of Republicans and pro-war Democrats. These two groups worked together to support the United States during the Civil War; the Party sought to unite not just politicians, but Ohio’s citizens. Although during the war they were able to unite, after the war beliefs on African Americans divided the Party and by 1868 it no longer existed. 

Little is known about the author, Flora, except he or she was a correspondent for The Highland Weekly News. In an 1860 article, “Flora” asserted that the name was simply a pen name and even indicated that the author was a man. 

The Highland Weekly News, published in Hillsboro, was owned and edited by local Joseph L. Boardman and supported the Republican Party. Since 1853 the owners thought of the paper as a “fearless defender of every principle of moral reform in the interest of religion and good government.”  

Written by Hope Bruce, Class of 2019