Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/210

194 state institutions in which the fate of her child is hereafter decided; just because she is a mother, she must be able to exert an influence in the passing of laws, through which she, to her own and her childrens' ruin, may be held in hateful bondage; just because she is a mother, she must demand the possibility of occupying an independent position, in order to be still a mother, after the father has ceased to be a father; just because she is a mother, she must strive to assist in changing conditions, which are daily cursed by infanticides; just because she is a mother, she must have a right to her child, which the man can now take from her by force, if his company has become unbearable to her; just because she is a mother, she must wish to have a right to influence conditions, which compel her to be a helpless spectator, when her children are led out to be slaughtered, to be sacrificed to the whim of a despot, or the savage taste of the rabble.

Thus you see that instead of avoiding public life, on account of our maternity, we have, just on account of our maternity, the very deepest interest in gaining an influence upon public life.

But I am surprised at my own fervor when I had made up my mind to answer you in the calmest manner. Perhaps it has annoyed me to hear you express opinions that I had expected of you, least of all, and this is the only way I can return your compliments.