Protection of Life Quotes
that women do not want to vote At the turn of the century, it was considered perfectly reasonable for men to write and speak about what women wanted. Some women actually felt the way Abbot described as they had never been exposed to any other alternatives. However, the very fact that Abbott felt compelled to write this article in one of America’s leading publications tells us that there was a substantial number of women who wanted the vote and who were being very active in demanding same. And once women got the vote, they have tended to vote in higher proportion to the men. So Lyman was proved wrong by events. The notion that women valued their maternal and homemaker roles to the exclusion of voting, working and otherwise participating in society, happened to fit in well with a religious world view that a minority of American Christians believe even today is the mandate of God.
Smith and his Mormon followers had been attacked and persecuted by mobs in various communities for availing themselves of their constitutional rights to follow their own religion. In those days the governor did not have command of a national guard and had to ask the President for troops to put down a mob or insurrection. Some Governors were in sympathy with the mobs and would do nothing to protect the Mormons. Smith had written to most of the then likely Presidential candidates of both major parties asking for their position on the Mormons who were facing persecution wherever they went. None of the politicians would make any satisfactory commitments. Smith took Direct Action and became the only major religious official to have run for the Presidency of the United States until Pat Robertson tried and failed in 2000. Smith’s assassination shortly thereafter cut his run for the Presidency short before it made much headway and politically he had no chance to affect the race.
