Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/51

Rh evil, which will infallibly destroy us, as the Roman Empire was destroyed."

The one true principle of all legal action in reference to sexual vice, with its deadly evils, is now clearly visible to the intelligence of the 19th century; it is this: Male lust must be restrained, in order to check female obscenity. The action and reaction of cause and effect can not be separated. All attempts to do so, result in increasing corruption.

The facts and causes of national demoralization are now plainly before our eyes. Yet so blind are our legislators, our public press, and large numbers of benevolent men and women, to the inevitable moral evil arising from false principle introduced into law, that vast effort is now being made to extend the destructive system of the Continent into our own country.

The imperative duty of ceaseless effort is now laid upon every just and patriotic man and woman, to secure the establishment of righteous law.