The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 53

AUGUSTA, March 1, 1872.

EDITORS WOMAN'S JOURNAL: I have never seen a letter in the _Woman's Journal_ written from Augusta, the capital of Maine, and as some things have transpired lately which might interest your readers, I take the liberty of writing a few lines. The bill for woman suffrage was defeated in the House, fifty-two to forty-one.

In the Senate the vote was fifteen in favor to eight against. I think the smallness of the vote was owing to the indifference of some of the members and the determination of a few to kill the bill. Some politicians are afraid of this innovation just now, lest the Republican party be more disrupted than it already is.

Day after day, when the session was drawing to a close, women went to the state-house expecting to hear the question debated.

Wednesday every available place was filled with educated women.

The day was spent--if I should say how, my criticism might be too severe. Gentlemen from Thomaston, Biddeford, Burlington and Waldoborough had the floor most of the time during the afternoon.

In the evening, while those same women and some of the members of the legislature were attending a concert, the bill was taken up and voted upon, _without any discussion whatever_. Now, I submit to any fair-minded person if this was right. I have listened to discussions upon that floor this winter for which I should have hung my head in shame had they been conducted by women. The whole country, from Maine to California, calls loudly for better legislation--for morality in politics.

A member of the House said to me yesterday, that he thought that some of the members from the rural districts were not sufficiently enlightened upon the question of woman suffrage, and the bill ought to have been thoroughly discussed. Yes, and perhaps treated with respect by its friends. I saw the member from Calais while a vote was being taken. Standing in his seat, with his hand stretched toward the rear of the House, where it is generally supposed that members sit who are a little slow in voting at the beck of politicians, he said: "_Yes_ is the way to vote, gentlemen! Yes! Yes!" When women have such politicians for champions equal suffrage is secured. But do we want such men? The member from Calais voted against woman's right of suffrage. He is said to be an ambitious aspirant in the fifth congressional district. See to it, women of the fifth district, that you do not have him as an opponent of equal rights in congress. There is a throne behind a throne. Let woman be _regal_ in the background, where she must stand for the present, in Maine.

But I am happy and proud to state that some very high-minded men, and some of the best legislators in the House, did vote for the bill, viz.: Brown of Bangor, Judge t.i.tcomb of Augusta, General Perry of Oxford, Porter of Burlington, Labroke of Foxcroft, and many others; in the Senate, the president and fourteen others, the real bone and marrow of the Senate, voted for the bill. The signs of the times are good. The watchman of the night discerns the morning light in the broad eastern horizon.

[Signed:] PATIENCE COMMONSENSE.

The _Portland Press_, in a summary of progress in Maine for 1873, says:

Women certainly have no reason to complain of the year's dealings with them, for they have been recognized in many ways which indicate the gradual breaking down of the prejudices that have hitherto given them a position of _quasi_ subjection. Mrs. Mary D. Welcome has been licensed to preach by the Methodists; Mrs.

Fannie U. Roberts of Kittery has been commissioned by the governor to solemnize marriages; Clara H. Nash, of the famous law firm of F. C. & C. H. Nash, of Columbia Falls, has argued a case before a jury in the Supreme Court; Miss Mary C. Lowe of Colby University has taken a college prize for declamation. They are the first Maine women who have ever enjoyed honors of the kind.

Miss Cameron spoke, too, at the last Congregational conference, and Miss Frank Charles was appointed register of deeds in Oxford county.

It is further to be noted that the legislature voted as follows on the question of giving the ballot to women: Senate--14 yeas, 14 nays; House--62 yeas, 69 nays. Women are rapidly obtaining a recognized position in our colleges. There are now five young women at Colby, three at Bates, and three at the Agricultural College--eleven in all. Bates has already graduated two. In the latter college a scholarship for the benefit of women has been endowed by Judge Reddington. Finally, the first Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation ever formed in Maine held its first meeting at Augusta last January, and was a great success. Carmel, Monroe, Etna and some other towns have elected women superintendents of schools, but this has been done in other years. For a little movement in the right direction we must credit Messrs. Amos, Abbott & Co., woolen manufacturers of Dexter, who divide ten per cent. of their profits with their operatives.

Clara H. Nash, the lady who, in partnership with her husband, has recently entered upon the practice of law in Maine, says:

Scarcely a day pa.s.ses but something occurs in our office to rouse my indignation afresh by reminding me of the utter insignificance with which the law, in its every department, regards woman, and its utter disregard of her rights as an individual. Would that women might feel this truth; then, indeed, would their enfranchis.e.m.e.nt be speedy.

In the _Woman's Journal_ of January 1, 1873, we find the following call:

The people of Maine who believe in the extension of the elective franchise to women as a beneficent power for the promotion of the virtues and the correction of the evils of society, and all who believe in the principles of equal justice, equal liberty and equal opportunity, upon which republican inst.i.tutions are founded, and have faith in the triumph of intelligence and reason over custom and prejudice, are invited to meet at Granite Hall, in the city of Augusta, on Wednesday, January 29, 1873, for the purpose of organizing a State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, and inaugurating such measures for the advancement of the cause as the wisdom of the convention may suggest.[181]

The _Portland Press_, in a leading editorial on the "Moral Eminence of Maine," says:

Maine has been first in many things. She has taught the world how to struggle with intemperance, and pilgrims come hither from all quarters of the earth to learn the theory and practice of prohibition. She was among the first to practically abolish capital punishment and to give married women their rights in respect to property. She is, perhaps, nearer giving them political rights, also, than any of her sister commonwealths. If Maine should be first among the States to give suffrage to women, she would do more for temperance than a hundred prohibitory laws, and more for civilization and progress than Ma.s.sachusetts did when she threw the tea into Boston harbor in 1773, or when she sent the first regiment to the relief of Washington in 1861.

The leaders of the temperance reform in Maine are fully alive to the necessity of woman suffrage as a means to that end. At the meeting of the State Temperance a.s.sociation of Maine, in Augusta, recently, Mr. Randall said that "as the woman suffrage convention has adjourned over this afternoon in order to attend the temperance meeting, he would move that when we adjourn it be to Thursday morning, as the work at both conventions is intimately connected. If the women of Maine went to the ballot-box, we should have officers to enforce the law." Mr. Randall's motion was carried, and the temperance convention adjourned.

The Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation a.s.sembled Wednesday, January 29, in Granite Hall, Augusta. There was a very large attendance, a considerable number of those present being members of the legislature. Hon. Joshua Nye presided. He made a few remarks relating to the removal of political disabilities from women, and introduced Mrs. Agnes A. Houghton of Bath, who spoke on the "Turning of the Tide," contending that woman should be elevated socially, politically and morally, enjoying the same rights as man.

She was followed by Judge Benjamin Kingsbury, jr., of Portland, who declared himself unequivocally in favor of giving woman the right to vote, and who trusted that she would be accorded this right by the present legislature. More than 1,000 persons were in the audience, and great enthusiasm prevailed. The morning session was devoted to business and the election of officers.[182] In order not to conflict with a meeting of the State Temperance a.s.sociation, no afternoon session was held, and, in return, the State Temperance Society gave up its evening meeting to enable its members to attend the suffrage convention.

Speeches were made by Henry B. Blackwell of Boston, Rev. Ellen Gustin of Mansfield, Mary Eastman of Lowell, and others.

Resolutions were pa.s.sed pledging the a.s.sociation not to cease its efforts until the unjust discrimination with regard to voting is swept away; that in the election of president, and of all officers where the qualifications of voters are not prescribed by the State const.i.tution, the experiment should be tried of allowing women to vote; that in view of the large amount of money which has been expended in Maine for the exclusive benefit of the Boys' Industrial School during the past twenty years, it is the prayer of the ladies of Maine that the present legislature vote the sum asked for the establishment of an Industrial School for girls.

In 1874 we find notices of other onward steps:

EDITORS JOURNAL: Woman's cause works slowly here, though in one respect we have been successful. Our county school-superintendent is a lady. She had a large majority over our other candidate, and over two gentlemen, and she is decidedly "the right person in the right place." She is a graduate from the normal school, the mother of four children, a widow for some six years past, and a lady. What more can we ask, unless, indeed, it be for a very conscientious idea of duty? That, too, she has, and also energy, with which she carries it out. The sterner s.e.x admit that women are competent to hold office. But some say we are not intelligent enough to vote. What an appalling amount of wisdom they show in this idea! It would be "unwomanly" in us to suggest such a word as inconsistency.

Fraternally, M. J. M.

_Cairo, Me., April, 1874._

In Searsport a woman was elected one of the two school-superintendents of the town. The following advertis.e.m.e.nt appears in the local newspaper:

SEARSPORT SCHOOL NOTICE.--The superintending school-committee of Searsport will meet to examine teachers at the town library, April 17 and May 1, 1874, at 1 o'clock P. M.

DELIA A. CURTIS, JOHN NICHOLS, _S. S. Com. of Searsport._

Teachers will be expected to discountenance the use of tobacco and intoxicating liquors, and to use their best endeavors to impress on the minds of the children and youth committed to their care and instruction a proper understanding of the evil tendency of such habits; and no teacher need apply for a certificate to teach in this town, the ensuing year, who uses either.

DELIA A. CURTIS.

DEAR JOURNAL: Aroostook, though occupying the extreme northeastern portion of our good State of Maine, and still in the blush of youth, is not behind her sister counties in recognition of woman's fitness for office. The returns of town elections, so far as I have yet seen, give three towns in the county which have elected ladies[183] to serve as members of the school committee.

L. J. Y. W.

_Houlton, Maine._

In the autumn of 1874 the governor and council requested the opinion of the Supreme Judicial Court on the following questions:

_First_--Under the const.i.tution and laws of this State, can a woman, if duly appointed and qualified as a justice of the peace, legally perform all acts pertaining to that office?

_Second_--Would it be competent for the legislature to authorize the appointment of a married woman to the office of justice of the peace; or to administer oaths, take acknowledgment of deeds or solemnize marriages, so that the same may be legal and valid?

The following responses to these inquiries were received by the governor: the opinion of the court, drawn by Chief-justice Appleton, and concurred in by Justices Cutting, Peters, Danforth and Virgin; a dissenting opinion from Justices Walton and Barrows and one from Justice d.i.c.kerson. The opinion of the court is given below:

To the questions proposed we have the honor to answer as follows:

Whether it is expedient that women should hold the office of justice of the peace is not an inquiry proposed for our consideration. It is whether, under the existing const.i.tution, they can be appointed to such office, and can legally discharge its duties.

By the const.i.tution of Ma.s.sachusetts, of which we formerly const.i.tuted a portion, the entire political power of that commonwealth was vested under certain conditions, in its male inhabitants of a prescribed age. They alone, and in the exclusion of the other s.e.x, as determined by its highest court of law, could exercise the judicial function as existing and established by that instrument.

By the act relating to the separation of the district of Maine from Ma.s.sachusetts, the authority to determine upon the question of separation, and to elect delegates to meet and form a const.i.tution was conferred upon the "inhabitants of the several towns, districts and plantations in the district of Maine qualified to vote for governor or senators," thus excluding the female s.e.x from all partic.i.p.ation in the formation of the const.i.tution, and in the organization of the government under it.

Whether the const.i.tution should or should not be adopted, was especially, by the organic law of its existence, submitted to the vote of the male inhabitants of the State.

It thus appears that the const.i.tution of the State was the work of its male citizens. It was ordained, established, and ratified by them, and by them alone; but by the power of government was divided into three distinct departments: legislative, executive and judicial. By article VI., section 4, justices of the peace are recognized as judicial officers.

By the const.i.tution, the whole political power of the State is vested in its male citizens. Whenever in any of its provisions, reference is made to s.e.x, it is to duties to be done and performed by male members of the community. Nothing in the language of the const.i.tution or in the debates of the convention by which it was formed, indicates any purpose whatever of any surrender of political power by those who had previously enjoyed it or a transfer of the same to those who had never possessed it.

Had any such design then existed, we cannot doubt that it would have been made manifest in appropriate language. But such intention is nowhere disclosed. Having regard then, to the rules of the common law as to the rights of women, married and unmarried, as then existing--to the history of the past--to the universal and unbroken practical construction given to the const.i.tution of this State and to that of the Commonwealth of Ma.s.sachusetts upon which that of this State was modeled, we are led to the inevitable conclusion that it was never in the contemplation or intention of those framing our const.i.tution that the offices thereby created should be filled by those who could take no part in its original formation, and to whom no political power was intrusted for the organization of the government then about to be established under its provisions, or for its continued existence and preservation when established.

The same process of reasoning which would sanction the conferring judicial power on women under the const.i.tution would authorize the giving them executive power by making them sheriffs and major-generals. But while the offices enacted by the const.i.tution are to be filled exclusively by the male members of the State, we have no doubt that the legislature may create new ministerial offices not enumerated therein, and if it deem expedient, may authorize the performance of the duties of the offices so created by persons of either s.e.x.

To the _first_ question proposed, we answer in the negative.

To the _second_, we answer that it is competent for the legislature to authorize the appointment of married or unmarried women to administer oaths, take acknowledgment of deeds or solemnize marriages, so that the same shall be legal and valid.

JOHN APPLETON, JOHN A. PETERS, JONAS CUTTING, WM. WIRT VIRGIN, CHARLES DANFORTH.

The dissenting opinion was as follows:

We, the undersigned, Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, concur in so much of the foregoing opinion as holds that it is competent for the legislature to authorize the appointment of women to administer oaths, take the acknowledgment of deeds and solemnize marriages. But we do not concur in the conclusion that it is not equally competent for the legislature to authorize the appointment of women to act as justices of the peace.