Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/290

274 I for my part vote for extreme liberality, and even Mr. Schuerze will not ‘be forgotten, if he will answer me one question definitely and unequivocally. It is not the following question: If all men were "practical statesmen" who became interested in a right only after it had become a power sure of victory, could an unrecognized right then ever come up for discussion, and would progress ever be possible? Neither is it the following: Are not the radical friends of reform, who are the first to agitate for universal rights and better institutions, trusting that whatever is correct in principle must and will find its way into practice, more practical and farsighted statesmen than the calculating ‘business and state "politicians" of the moment, who take advantage of progress only when it is already in full swing, in spite of them? Nor the following: Were the majority of the slaves, a few years ago, in favor of the abolition of slavery? Was this abolition untimely or unjust, because not the slaves themselves but the free people demanded it? And is not oppression everywhere detrimental to those that execute it as well as to those who suffer from it? Is not the recognition and security of rights a beneficence and a duty even where no one expressly claims them? I will excuse the practical statesman from answering all these, and other questions — I only wish to address one personal question to him.

SCHUERZE — And that is?

JULIE VOM BERG — Are you in principle, or as