He opposed woman suffrage on the ground that the majority of women did not want it and never would, and declared that until woman should "emancipate herself from the thraldom to etiquette," he "could not see how the ` woman's rights theory ' is ever to be anything more than a logically defensible abstraction."
The further consequence was that all aspirations were subjected to the thraldom of the Church.
He was among the first distinctively American writers, and protested vigorously against intellectual thraldom to the mother-country.
Nevertheless, he became more anxious than ever to emancipate himself from French thraldom, and his first sign of independence was his visit to Venice in 1687, where he conferred on political affairs with Prince Eugene of Savoy and other personages, without consulting Louis.
The fugitives were pursued and beleaguered by the earl of Morton and Lord Hume, who declared their purpose to rescue the queen from the thraldom of her husband.