Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/213

Rh But you place yourself entirely on the ground of the slaveholder. You only goa step further, and, in denying us our rights, tender us compliments at your own expense. You hold these compliments so cheap that you are even willing, to throw a part of your reason, and your honor, into the bargain, if we will only accept them. We are such delicate plants that we-cannot flourish in the wild climate of masculine brutality, without a protecting hedge and cover — that is the sense of the compliments in which you clothe your last proofs against our equality of rights.

Men would very soon come to recognize our human rights, even without compliments, if we had the power to enforce them. Backed by an army of sharpshooters, and every woman will be recognized by men, not only as their equal in rights, but also honored like a czarina, and worshiped like a goddess. Fortunate for us all that we women have no sharpshooters at our command! If, indeed, enforced rights cannot be enjoyed in peace, security and happiness, till after their opponents have been put out of harm's way, we women would have to wage an endless war for our rights, a war, in the real sense of the word, "to the last man." Ought we to exterminate the men, in order to become free? Fear not, oh noble heroes! You alone require force to become free; all that we need is the renunciation of force. It is our pride, as well as our consolation, that humanity alone, and not iron, can free us from