Ohio History Journal

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166 Ohio Arch

166      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

to live, before he has had a chance for self-realization? Why

cut off a man's opportunities in his youth? Why rob him of

the holy right to live and to make the best of himself? There

are doubtless moments of exhiliration and glory in the dangers

of battle, but these are as nothing when balanced against the

wholesale slaughter of men.

Herein then lies the secret of our anti-war spirit. Not that

we would not fight if necessary. No people is more jealous of

its rights and its honor. And in the language of Dryden, "Be-

ware of the fury of the patient man." But unless war is un-

avoidable, we are for peace at all times. This intense devotion

to peace is, I believe, strengthening with the years, is becoming

deep and ineradicable in the American heart. The fact that at

this time there is a national impulse for greater preparedness

does not change this basal truth in the least, and when the his-

torian of the remote future sums up the qualities and character-

istics of the nations of our age, perhaps he will place this Devo-

tion to Peace as the most pronounced, distinctive characteristic

of the American people.

 

WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVEN-

TION OF OHIO.

 

BY D. C. SHILLING, MONMOUTH COLLEGE, ILL.

The question of extending the franchise to woman on an

equality with man is an outgrowth of nineteenth century democ-

racy, and a tribute to the progress woman has made in almost all

fields of human endeavor. It is no longer a local issue, but has be-

come a national one and from a broader point of view, an inter-

national one. It, therefore, may be worth our while to analyze

the movement in Ohio as reflected in the Constitutional Conven-

tions of 1851, 1873 and 1912, especially the first two.

Ohio, like several of the states which entered the union in

the early part of our national history, has changed her organic

law by a subsequent constitution, incorporating to be sure, many

principles of the older yet altering what progress and experience

taught should be altered. This constitution adopted in the middle

of the nineteenth century together with several amendments con-

stitutes the organic law of the state.