Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/267

Rh fundamental conception that a difference of sex may involve a difference of rights, and annul the sovereignty of the individual, is once destroyed, it will become clear to everyone that all further objections to the absolute equality of rights can be turned against men as well as against women.

In touching upon a few other points we wished to indicate the consequences of equal rights upon relations which are generally passed over in silence, but which have hitherto been regulated entirely to the disadvantage of woman, and are rarely conceived of in a radical sense. I am tempted to ask the question whether men would ever have thought of founding the institution they call marriage if they had felt sure that without it women would, be as eager to do their "duties" as they themselves have always been to disregard theirs. The women were to be chained while the men went free. This seems to have been the original meaning of man-created "marriage." Marriage as reformed by women abolishes all chains as superfluous in the true, and disastrous in the false, union.

The motion to adopt the resolutions, in toto, was favorably received by many, especially by Marie Zehringer of St. Louis, who spoke as follows:

"It is incomprehensible to me how a woman, who is not entirely devoid of judgment and selfrespect, can love a man and accept him as her companion for life, who does not grant her every right which he claims for himself. By the assumption of