The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 121

T. H. MUNDINE, BENJ. WATROUS, WM. H. FLEMING, L. P. HARRIS.

A DECLARATION.

Be it declared by the people of Texas in convention a.s.sembled, that the following shall be a section of the const.i.tution of the State of Texas, known as section ---- of article ----: Every person, without distinction of s.e.x, who shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and who shall be a citizen of the United States, or is at the time of the adoption of this const.i.tution by the congress of the United States a citizen of the State of Texas, and shall have resided in this State one year next preceding an election, and the last six months within the district, county, city or town in which he or she offers to vote, shall be an elector.

The _Woman's Journal_ of December 4, 1875, contains a letter from Mrs. Sarah W. Hiatt, who presented a memorial to the const.i.tutional convention. The memorial was referred to the Committee on Suffrage.

In regard to the effect, she says:

Since the presentation of the memorial I have had some very interesting letters on the subject from a few of our leading men; some for, others against woman suffrage, but all treating the subject respectfully. I copy below a portion of one just received. I should like to give it entire with the writer's name, but have not his permission to do so:

As you apprehended, the question of suffrage had been definitely settled in the convention before the reception of your letter. It remains as heretofore, unrestricted manhood suffrage. That all the rabble, the very _debris_ of society, should be allowed a voice in government, and yet intelligent, highly-cultivated women who are amenable to the laws of the State and who own and pay taxes on property, should be debarred from a voice in making the laws which are to affect their persons and property equally with that of the men, is to my mind simply an outrage on reason and justice. * * * The fear of ignoring the right of pet.i.tion, and gallantry towards your s.e.x on the part of a few, prevented the memorial from being summarily rejected.

Outside of ---- and ---- I know of no member of the convention who openly favors woman suffrage in any form. It is true there are a number of gentlemen who, in private conversation, will admit the justice of your plea, but avoid it by saying that ladies generally neither demand nor desire the right to vote. The truth is, these men (and society is full of them) have not the moral courage to do simple justice.

Thus you see that, so far as the action of this convention is concerned, our cause is defeated. Yet I do not feel discouraged.

I think there is hardly a State in the Union that has such just and excellent laws concerning the property rights of women as Texas. There is also great liberality of sentiment here concerning the avocations of women. But the right of women to the ballot seems to be almost a new idea to our people. I have never lived in a community where the women are more nearly abreast of the men in all the activities of life than here in this frontier settlement. In our State a woman's property, real or personal, is her own, to keep, to convey, or to bequeath. The unusual number of widows here, due to the incursions of the Indians during and since the war, has made the management as well as the ownership of property by women so common a thing as to attract no notice. I might give interesting instances, but that would take time, and my point is this, that the laws which have enabled, and the circ.u.mstances which have driven women to rely upon and to exert themselves, have been educational, not only to them, but also to the community. The importance of this education to the future--who can measure it? It is true that many of them can neither read nor write, but in this the men are not in advance of them. It as often happens that the woman can read while the man cannot, as the reverse. And they are almost universally resolved that their children shall not grow up in the ignorance that has been their portion. If the women could vote, our convention would not think of submitting a const.i.tution that did not secure to the State a liberal free school system.

The legislature of 1885, after a hard struggle, enacted a law making it compulsory on the heads of all departments to give at least one-half of the clerical positions in their respective offices to women. The action has extraordinary interest, and is regarded as a victory for the woman's rights party. Mrs. Jenny Bland Beauchamp of Dennison writes:

Texas claims to be a woman's State, in that her laws are unusually just and lenient to women. A woman who has property at marriage can keep it. She can even claim any property that she can prove was bought with that money. The wife is ent.i.tled to half the community whether she owned any of the original stock or not. She has a life interest in the homestead; no deed of trust can be put upon it, nor can it be mortgaged. It can only be conveyed from her by actual sale with her written consent. Under our latest revised statutes women have the right of suffrage, but have never exercised it; nor is the subject agitated to any great extent.

Three years ago, when the State University was built, it was decided that it should be coeducational, and young women are now being educated there side by side with young men. Texas has many liberal men and women. It is generally remarked that the women of the State are better educated than the men.

Miss Julia Pease, a Va.s.sar graduate and daughter of the late ex-Governor Pease, has charge of 6,000 acres of land. She lives in the family mansion at Austin with her mother, and in addition to her other duties superintends the education of the three children of her deceased sisters.

Mrs. Rogers, the "cattle queen" of Texas, inherited from her first husband a herd of 40,000 cattle. The widow managed the business, and in due time married a preacher twenty years younger than herself, who had seven children. She attends to her estate herself, rides among her cowboys on horseback, and can tell just what a steer or cow is worth at any size or age.

The largest individual sheep-owner is a woman, known all over the State as the "Widow Cullahan." Her sheep, more than 50,000 in number, wander over the ranges of Uvalda and Bandern counties, in the southwestern part of the State.

Their grade is a cross between the hardy Mexican sheep and the Vermont merino. They are divided into flocks of 2,000 head each, with a "bossero" and two "pastoras" in charge of each flock. At the spring and fall shearings long trains of wagons transport the "widow's" wool to the market at San Antonio.

Texas has two female dentists. Mrs. Stocking is one of the most successful dental surgeons in the State. The other, Miss Emma Tibler, went from Kentucky to Texas for the purpose of teaching. Finding this profession full, she studied dentistry and is now a successful pract.i.tioner of Cleburne.

The youngest telegrapher in the world is probably Hattie Hutchinson, in charge of an office in Texas. She is only ten years old.

III.--ARKANSAS.

Under date of March, 1868, Miles L. Langley writes from Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in regard to the efforts for equality in the const.i.tutional convention:

ARKADELPHIA, Ark., March 5, 1868.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY--_Dear Friend_: With a sad heart but an approving conscience, I will give you some information relative to the action of our const.i.tutional convention on the franchise question.

The new const.i.tution--a copy of which I send you--makes no difference between men, on account of race or color and contains other excellences; but alas! it fails to guarantee to woman her G.o.d-given and well-earned rights of civil and political equality.

I made a motion to insert in the const.i.tution a section to read thus: "All citizens twenty-one years of age, who can read and write the English language, shall be eligible to the elective franchise, and be ent.i.tled to equal political and legal rights and privileges." The motion was seconded and I had the floor, but the House became so clamorous that the president could not restore order, and the meeting adjourned with the understanding that I was to occupy the floor next morning. But next morning, just as I was about to commence my speech, some of the members tried to "bully" me out of the right to speak on that question. I replied that I had been robbed, shot, and imprisoned for advocating the rights of the slaves, and that I would then and there speak in favor of the rights of women if I had to fight for the right! I then proceeded to present arguments of which I am not ashamed. I was met with ridicule, sarcasm and insult. My ablest opponent, a lawyer, acknowledged in his reply that he could not meet my argument. The motion was laid on the table.

The Democrats are my enemies because I a.s.sisted in emanc.i.p.ating the slaves. The Republicans have now become my opponents, because I have made an effort to confer on the women their rights. And even the women themselves fail to sympathize with me.

Very respectfully, MILES L. LANGLEY.

The Arkansas _Ladies' Journal_ says:

They tell us that women are not fit for politics. This may be true; and as it is next to impossible to change the nature of a woman, why wouldn't it be a good idea to so change politics that it shall be fit for women?

In 1885, Arkansas formed its first woman suffrage society at Eureka Springs through the efforts of Miss Phoebe Couzins, Mrs.

Lizzie D. Fyler, president. The a.s.sociation numbers some fine speakers. The press is not in opposition, one or two papers favor the cause.

Misses Pettigrew and Sims have been elected clerks of the legislature. Several other ladies were candidates for the positions, and the contest was quite exciting. Mrs. Simonson and Miss Emily Thomas are members of the board of directors of a lumber company at Batesville, and Miss Thomas is also bookkeeper of the firm.

A very able report[522] of what has been done in Arkansas for the elevation of woman was presented by Mrs. Lizzie D. Fyler at the annual Washington convention in March, 1884.

IV.--MISSISSIPPI.

Mississippi secures to a married woman her own separate estate, and enables her to contract with her husband, or others, and carry on business in her own name. She may sue her husband, or others, and be sued, and has practically most of her civil rights; but her political rights are denied as in all other States.

In 1877 a law was pa.s.sed by which henceforth no one can legally sell liquor in Mississippi unless he can obtain the written consent of a majority of the adult citizens of both s.e.xes resident in the township.

The Mississippi Industrial College for Women held its formal opening October 22, 1885, at Columbus. Students had come from all parts of the State. More than 300 had already entered. The occasion was a brilliant one. Speeches were made by Senator E.

T. Sykes, Senator J. McMcartin of Claiborne county, Col. J. L.

Power of Jackson, Hon. James T. Harrison, Governor Lowry, and Dr.

Jones. Mrs. E. G. Peyton of Hazelhurst, to whose efforts the founding of the Industrial College is largely due, was called upon, and in a few well-chosen remarks expressed the pride she felt in the State and in the college, feeling sure, she said, that Mississippi's daughters were now in safe hands.

Miss Lilian Light, the eight-year-old daughter of Mr. Jere Light of Hayneville, when only five or six years old began to make figures in clay, and now (1885) has a large collection of mud cats, hogs, dogs, cows, horses, and men. The figures are declared to be not childish imitations, but remarkably acute likenesses.

Her best piece represents a negro praying, and is said to be very clever.

Miss C. F. Boardman of Elmore's Point, two miles from Biloxi, on the Bock Bay, has received the chief premiums awarded for oranges grown on the Gulf coast outside of Florida. This lady has 1,000 bearing orange trees of the choicest varieties, and has devoted her attention to the production of these and other tropical fruits, with great success. She came to the South for health a few years ago, and has not only found that, but has established for herself a pleasing and profitable industry in fruit culture.

Her oranges were exhibited among numerous fine competing specimens, and were chosen for high excellence.

Miss Eliza A. Dupuy for many years contributed copiously to Mr.

Bonner's _Ledger_. Miss Dupuy, who was descended from prominent Virginia families, was in her youth a teacher. The first story written by her was produced when she was only fourteen years old.

More fortunate than the majority of authors, she leaves behind her a considerable sum earned by her ever-busy pen.

Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey was perhaps the most remarkable woman that Mississippi can boast. She was the niece of Mrs. Warfield, the author of the "Household of Bouverie," who had great influence in forming her literary tastes. The New Orleans Monthly _Review_ contains many able articles on abstruse questions from her pen.

One, in the February number for 1876, on the "Origin of the Species," is exceptionally able and interesting. It was read in October, 1875, before the New Orleans Academy of Sciences by Mrs.

Dorsey herself. This article shows extensive reading in scientific questions. She was made corresponding member of the Academy, an honor she appreciated more highly for her s.e.x than for herself. She was a large-souled, n.o.ble woman, devoted to what she considered Southern interests. She bequeathed to Jefferson Davis the estate, called Beauvoir, on which he now resides.

FOOTNOTES:

[516] Emily P. Collins of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, wrote Miss Anthony: "Our State is to form a new const.i.tution this spring. I feel that now if ever is the time to strike for woman's emanc.i.p.ation. 'We, the people' includes women as well as men, and regardless of former legislative enactments we should be allowed to vote and be voted for as delegates to the const.i.tutional convention. If I only had some one to aid me, or had your moral courage, I would proclaim myself a candidate for the const.i.tutional convention. The colored people ought to sustain me for I have ever been their steadfast friend, and they themselves owe their emanc.i.p.ation chiefly to women. They cannot elect a colored man here, but could I have their support I have personal friends enough to secure my election. The parish ought to be stumped in support of some candidate whose efforts should be pledged to the insertion of a clause in the new const.i.tution to prohibit future legislatures making s.e.x a qualification for voting."

[517] The following letter from Mrs. Saxon to Mrs. Minor gives the reason why she could not be present at the National Convention held in St. Louis:

"Almost entirely unaided I have gained 300 names in five weeks.

Among them two Presbyterian ministers, wives of three others, seven of the most prominent physicians, all of the city administrators, two distinguished judges, several lawyers and many leading business men. I have begged Mrs. Emily P. Collins to urge upon the a.s.sociation to meet here next year. I feel that now and before this convention is our most important work, so I must stay and try and influence the members all in my power. I was unaware of the action I was to take here, and if I get before the convention it will not be before the morning of the 7th, or I would come anyway as I have been offered a free pa.s.sage by both rail and river. Mrs. Collins was with me for a few days and will a.s.sure you of my untiring efforts in the cause here. G.o.d knows I would be willing to buy fifteen minutes before the whole convention, the day they vote on that bill, by the sacrifice of my life; for remembering the grand women I have seen sacrificed along life's path, I think from their memory a power and eloquence would spring that might win hearts of steel and force justice to women from them. I will write again in a few days and report progress.