9160. WOMEN, Civilization and.—
It is
an honorable circumstance for man, that the
first moment he is at his ease, he allots the
internal employments to his female partner,
and takes the external on himself. And this
circumstance, or its reverse, is a pretty good
indication that a people are, or are not at their
ease. Among the Indians, this indication
fails from a particular cause; every Indian
man is a soldier or warrior, and the whole
body of warriors constitute a standing army,
always employed in war or hunting. To support
that army, there remain no laborers but
the women. Here, then, is so heavy a military
establishment, that the civil part of the nation
is reduced to women only. But this is a
barbarous perversion of the natural destination
of the two sexes—
Travels in Lorraine. Washington ed. ix, 396.
(1787)
