"ADVOCATES OF WOMEN SUFFRAGE PRACTICALLY ARE SAYING, 'YOU MEN ARE SO SELFISH AND UNJUST THAT YOU CANNOT BE TRUSTED WITH THE INTERESTS OF YOUR WIVES, DAUGHTERS, AND SISTERS; THEREFORE GIVE THEM THE LAW-MAKING POWER THAT THEY MAY TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES'"

BEECHER, Catharine E. Woman Suffrage and Woman's Profession. Hartford: Brown & Gross, 1871. Octavo, original gilt-stamped purple cloth. $1000.

First edition of American educator Catharine Beecher's argument against securing immediate women's suffrage based on her belief that the women's movement was an assault on the "family state" and that women had to be educated before they could handle political power, in original cloth.

While her contemporaries such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were fighting for immediate women's suffrage, American educator Catharine E. Beecher (sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe) was actively fighting against it. Beecher believed that the women's movement—which she saw as comprising advocates of free love, free divorce, and birth control—was a threat to the sanctity of the family. Moreover, Beecher believed that women, at least outside of the upper classes, were too ignorant and poorly educated to be trusted with their own futures. Indeed, although Beecher was a strong advocate of education for women and the creation of a woman's university, she was quite conservative about the path to suffrage. Instead of encouraging women to strike out on their own and secure the vote as quickly as possible, Beecher argued that the increasingly weak and ill female population should reach out to the clergy and encourage them to intercede with the men in power. Over time, Beecher felt that women could be rendered healthier and more capable through her educational philosophy. She also believed that men could come to recognize the equal value of women who held comparable professions to theirs and contributed to society, but she rejected the idea of giving women the vote—or any political power—until women were "wisely trained" (presumably at her new women's university) in a godly manner. Pencil owner signature.

Interior generally fine, light wear and soiling to original cloth. An extremely good copy.