The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 58

"The contents of my letters to religious and educational bodies can readily be imagined, and one which was sent to the United States Brewers' a.s.sociation, in convention at Atlantic City, N. J., may be cited as an example of the subject-matter of those to other organizations:

GENTLEMEN: As chairman of the committee appointed by our National Suffrage a.s.sociation to address letters to the large conventions held this year, allow me to bring before you the great need of the recognition of women in all of the rights, privileges and immunities of United States citizenship.

Though your a.s.sociation has for its princ.i.p.al object the management of the great brewing interests of this country, yet I have noted that you have adopted resolutions declaring against woman suffrage. I therefore appeal to you, since the question seems to come within the scope of your deliberations, to reverse your action this closing year of the century, and declare yourselves in favor of the practical application of the fundamental principles of our Government to all the people--women as well as men. Whatever your nationality, whatever your religious creed, whatever your political party, you are either born or naturalized citizens of the United States, and because of that are voters of the State in which you reside. Will you not, gentlemen, accord to the women of this nation, having the same citizenship as yourselves, precisely the same privileges and powers which you possess because of that one fact?

The only true principle--the only safe policy--of a democratic-republican government is that every cla.s.s of people shall be protected in the exercise of the right of individual representation. I pray you, therefore, to pa.s.s a resolution in favor of woman suffrage, and order your officers, on behalf of the a.s.sociation, to sign a pet.i.tion to Congress for this purpose, and thereby put the weight of your influence on the side of making this Government a genuine republic.

Should you desire to have one of our best woman suffrage speakers address your convention, if you will let me know as soon as possible, I will take pleasure in arranging for one to do so.

"This was read to the convention, and the secretary, Gallus Thomann, thus reported its action to me:

Mr. Obermann [ex-president of the a.s.sociation and one of the trustees] voicing the sentiments of the delegates, spoke as follows: "Miss Susan B. Anthony is ent.i.tled to the respect of every man and woman in this country, whether agreeing with her theories or not. I think it but fair and courteous to her that the secretary be instructed to answer that letter, and to inform Miss Anthony that this is a body of business men; that we meet for business purposes and not for politics. Furthermore, that she is mistaken and misinformed so far as her statement is concerned that we have pa.s.sed resolutions opposing woman suffrage. _We have never taken such action at any of our conventions or on any other occasion._ I submit this as a motion."

The motion was unanimously adopted, and that part of Mr.

Obermann's remarks which related to the respect due Miss Anthony was loudly and enthusiastically applauded.

To the sentiment thus expressed, permit me, dear Miss Anthony, to add personally the a.s.surance of my highest esteem.

"Among the results of the work with State conventions it may be mentioned that the Georgia Federation of Labor, the Minnesota Federation of Labor, the State Teachers' a.s.sociation of Washington and the New York State Grange signed the pet.i.tions and pa.s.sed the resolutions.

"As another branch of the work, copies of these two pet.i.tions were sent to each of the forty-five States and three Territories, with letters asking the suffrage presidents, where a.s.sociations existed, and prominent individuals in the few States where they did not, to make two copies of each pet.i.tion on their own official paper, sign them on behalf of the suffragists of the State, and return them to me to be sent to the members of Congress from the respective districts.

This was done almost without exception and these pet.i.tions were presented by various members, one copy in the Senate and one in the House. Of all the State pet.i.tions, the most interesting was that of Wyoming, which, in default of a suffrage a.s.sociation (none being needed) was signed by every State officer, from the Governor down, by several United States officials, and by many of the most influential men and women. With it came a letter from the wife of ex-U. S. Senator Joseph M. Carey, who collected these names, saying the number was limited only by the brief s.p.a.ce of time allowed.

"In all, more than two hundred pet.i.tions for woman suffrage from various a.s.sociations were thus sent to Congress in 1900, representing millions of individuals. Many cordial responses were received from members, and promises of a.s.sistance should the question come before Congress, but there is no record of the slightest attempt by any member to bring it before that body.

"In doing this work I wrote fully a thousand letters to a.s.sociations and individuals, in all of which I placed some of our best printed literature. There was a thorough stirring up of public sentiment which must have definite results in time, for it should not be forgotten that in addressing conventions we appeal to the chosen leaders of thought and work from many cities and States, and so set in motion an ever-widening circle of agitation in countless localities."

A most valuable means of educating public sentiment is the securing of a Woman's Day at Chautauqua a.s.semblies and State and county fairs, when good speakers present the "woman question" in its various phases, including always the need for enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt, the leading orators of the country, have addressed Chautauquas in all parts of the United States, as well as countless other large gatherings which have no connection with suffrage, being thus enabled to propagate the principle over a vast area. It can be seen from the above resume that the ground of effort is widely extended and that the harvest is ripening, but alas, there is a constant repet.i.tion of the old, old cry, "The laborers are few."

One can only repeat what has often been said, that never before were such results as can be seen on every hand in the improved conditions for women and the advanced public sentiment in favor of a full equality of rights, accomplished by so small a number of workers and under such adverse conditions. Perhaps this will continue to be said even unto the end, but their labors will know neither faltering nor cessation until the original object, as announced over fifty years ago, has been attained, viz.: the full enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.

FOOTNOTES:

[147] See Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, p. 723.

[148] For the names of the women who have addressed the National Conventions and Resolutions Committees of the various parties in the effort to obtain an indors.e.m.e.nt of woman suffrage, and for a full account of their reception, of the memorials presented and the results which followed, the reader is referred to the History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, pp. 340 and 517; Vol. III, pp. 22 and 177; and for many personal incidents, to the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony in the chapters devoted to the years of the various presidential nominating conventions, beginning with 1868.

Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, from the National Suffrage a.s.sociation, and Henry B. Blackwell and Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, as Republicans, presented the question to the Resolutions Committee of the National Republican Convention of 1896 in St. Louis, above referred to; Dr.

Julia Holmes Smith, accompanied by a committee of ladies, to that of the National Democratic Convention in Chicago that year.

[149] Miss Anthony sent a special letter to each of these bodies worded to appeal particularly to the interests it represented.

[150] For the answer to this pet.i.tion see Chap. XIX.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN THE STATES.

The preceding chapters have been devoted princ.i.p.ally to efforts made in behalf of women by the National-American Suffrage a.s.sociation through its conventions, committees, officers, speakers, organizers and members. Contemporaneous with this line of action there has been for a number of years a similar movement in the respective States carried forward through their a.s.sociations auxiliary to the National, their committees, officers, speakers, organizers and individual membership. Each of the two divisions has been largely dependent upon the other, the States forming the strength of the national body, the latter extending a.s.sistance to the States whenever a special campaign has been at hand or help has been needed in organizing, convention or legislative work. The following chapters are confined wholly to the situation in the various States and are subdivided into Organization, Legislative Action, Laws, Suffrage, Office-Holding, Occupations and Education. Their object is to give a general idea of the status of woman at the close of the nineteenth century and the manifold changes of which it is the result. It is desired also to put on record the part which women themselves have had in the steady advance which will be observed.

The account of only the past seventeen years is given, as the three preceding volumes of this History relate in detail the pioneer work and the gains made previous to 1884. Unfortunately it is inevitable in a recital of this kind that many names should be omitted which are quite as worthy of mention as those that find place, for in some instances the records are imperfectly kept and in others the list is so long as to forbid reproduction.[151] It has been necessary to bar compliments in order to avoid unjust discrimination and to meet the demands of limited s.p.a.ce. To posterity the work is of more importance than the workers, and those who have engaged in the efforts to improve the condition of women necessarily have had to possess a spirit of self-abnegation and self-sacrifice which neither expected nor desired personal rewards.

The subject of Organization in most of the States is treated in the briefest possible manner, the intention being merely to show that in every State and Territory there has been some attempt to gather into a working force the scattered individuals who believe in the justice of woman suffrage and wish to obtain it. More extended mention of course is due to the older States, where there has been continuous organized work for many years, and where the societies have remained intact and held their regular meetings in spite of such defeats and discouragements as never have had to be faced by any other cause. It is most difficult to form and maintain an a.s.sociation which has not a concrete object to labor for, and when a campaign for an amendment is not actually in progress, the suffrage in the distant future appears largely as an abstraction. The early days of the movement necessarily had to be given to creating the sentiment which would later be organized, and it is only within the past decade that the time has seemed ripe for systematic effort in this direction. The lack of effective organization has been a serious but unavoidable weakness which henceforth will be remedied as speedily and thoroughly as possible.

It is a favorite argument of the opponents of woman suffrage that the many gains of various kinds have not been due to the efforts of women themselves. Under the head of Legislative Action will be found the dates and figures to prove that, year after year, in almost every State, women have gone to the Legislatures with appeals for every concession which has been granted and many more which have been refused. The bills presented by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union have not been specifically included because they are fully recorded in the publications of that body, and because this volume is confined almost exclusively to the one subject of enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. While the Suffrage a.s.sociations have directed their legislative efforts princ.i.p.ally to secure action for this purpose, individual members have joined the W. C. T. U. innumerable times in its attempts to obtain other bills of advantage to women and children, and in some instances this has been done officially by the a.s.sociations.

Among various measures in which the two organizations have united may be mentioned the raising of the "age of protection" for girls; the securing of women physicians in all inst.i.tutions where women and children are confined, and women on the boards of all such; women city physicians; matrons at jails and station houses; better conditions for working women; the abolition of child-labor; industrial schools for girls. Measures which have been especially championed by the W. S. A., but which the W. C. T. U. has aided officially or individually, have been those asking for every form of suffrage; equal property laws for wives; the opening of all educational inst.i.tutions to women; their admission to all professions and occupations; the repeal of laws barring them from office; the enactment of laws giving father and mother equal guardianship of children.[152]

The W. C. T. U. alone has secured temperance measures of many kinds, including a law in every State requiring scientific temperance instruction in the public schools; in many States curfew laws, and statutes prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and of liquor on or near fair grounds, Soldiers' Homes and school-houses, and preventing gambling devices, immoral exhibits, etc. The Federation of Women's Clubs has obtained laws for free traveling libraries and has united with other organizations in various States in efforts for equal guardianship of children, school suffrage, women on school and library boards and the abolishing of child labor. Other a.s.sociations have joined in one or more of the above lines of work and have had independent measures of their own, such as prison reform, social purity, the a.s.sistance of different races--as the negro and the Indian--village improvement, kindergartens, public playgrounds, etc.

It would not be possible to draw a distinct line dividing the legislative work of one a.s.sociation from the others, except that it may be said the suffrage societies have made the franchise their chief point, believing it to be the power with which the rest could be gained, and the temperance unions have made their princ.i.p.al attack upon the liquor traffic, considering it the greatest evil. The objects of the various bodies are indicated in the last chapter of this volume on Organizations of Women, but whatever these may be, if they include any direct, practical work their promoters usually find themselves at the door of the Legislature asking for help. Here they get their first lesson in the imperative necessity of possessing a vote, and seeing their measures fail because asked for by a disfranchised cla.s.s, to whom the legislators are in no way indebted, they frequently become ardent advocates of suffrage for women.

As it would be wholly impossible in the small s.p.a.ce which can be allowed to include an account of all the legislative work done by women, mention is made princ.i.p.ally of that for the franchise. While the successes have been few compared to the number of bills presented, the record is valuable as indicating that determined and persistent effort will not be relaxed until it is granted in every State.

Under the head of Legislation is related also the attempts to get from Const.i.tutional Conventions an amendment striking out the word "male"

as a qualification for suffrage. It includes, besides, graphic accounts of the campaigns made in behalf of such amendments when submitted to the voters by the Legislatures. Those who have not closely followed these events doubtless will be surprised to learn the amount of effort which has been expended by women to obtain the franchise. It is infinitely greater than has been put forth for this purpose by all other cla.s.ses combined, since the Revolutionary War was fought to secure to every citizen the right of individual representation.

The Laws regarding women as here given are in no sense of the word a "brief," but merely present the facts in the language of a layman and in the simplest and most concise form. Those relating to property are in the nature of a curiosity. An attorney in San Francisco who was asked for information as to the laws in general for women in California, answered that to give in full those of property alone would require as much s.p.a.ce as could be granted in the History for the entire chapter. It is not possible to make in these introductory paragraphs an adequate digest of these laws in various States. They are not precisely the same in any two of the forty-nine States and Territories, and they offer a striking ill.u.s.tration of the attempts of law-makers, during the last few decades, to rectify in a measure the legal outrages of the past, and of their inability in the present state of their development to grant absolute justice. That must await the lawmakers of the future, and probably the time when women shall have a part in selecting them.

All that can be claimed for the statutes quoted herein is that they are as nearly correct as it has been possible to make them. With but one or two exceptions, the Attorney-Generals in every State have been most courteous and obliging when appealed to for a.s.sistance. The laws for women, however, have been so taken from and added to, so torn to pieces and patched up, that the best lawyers in many States say frankly that they do not know just what they are at the present time.

Legislatures and code revision committees are continually tinkering at them and every year witnesses some changes in most of the States.[153]

A very thorough abstract of the laws, made in 1886 by Miss Lelia J.

Robinson, LL. B., a member of the bar in Ma.s.sachusetts, was of almost no use in the compilation for this volume because of the endless alterations since that time. The Legal Status of Women, a condensed resume issued in 1897 by the National Suffrage a.s.sociation, has been covered thickly with pencil marks during the preparation of this summary, as the reports received from different States have shown the changes effected in the few years which have since elapsed. A new book, Woman and the Law, prepared by a lecturer on political science in one of our largest universities and published in 1901, was hailed with joy, but was found to include a number of laws which had been repealed within the past four or five years and to omit some very important ones which had been enacted during this time, as well as to contain frequent mistakes in regard to others.

These instances show the impossibility of an absolutely authentic presentation of the laws for women in their constantly changing condition. Although it was the intention to close this History with 1900, in several States, notably Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Illinois and Wisconsin, laws have been pa.s.sed since that date of sufficient importance to demand a place. During the two years of its preparation the entire codes of property laws for women in Ma.s.sachusetts and Virginia have been revolutionized.

An amusing part of a difficult task has been the reluctance of men to admit the existence of laws which are conspicuously unjust to women, the admission being frequently accompanied by the statement that it is the intention to change them at an early date, or that it would only be necessary to call the attention of the Legislature to them in order to secure their repeal. Even women themselves in States where the statutes especially discriminate against them, have written that these must not be published unless those from all the others are given.

Whether this is due to State pride or personal humiliation is not clearly evident.

The one encouraging feature is that in almost every State decided progress is shown since 1848, when in New York and Pennsylvania the first change was made in the English Common Law which then everywhere prevailed, and which did not permit a married woman to hold property, to buy or sell, to sue or be sued, to make a contract or a will, to carry on business in her own name, to possess the wages she earned, or to have her children in case of divorce. An examination of the laws in the following chapters will show that the wife now may own and control her separate property in three-fourths of the States, and in the other fourth only one Northern State is included. In every State a married woman may make a will, but can dispose only of her separate property.

In about two-thirds of the States she possesses her earnings. In the great majority she may make contracts and bring suit. The property rights of unmarried women always have been nearly the same as those of unmarried men, but the Common Law declared that "by marriage husband and wife are one person in law and the legal existence of the wife is merged in that of the husband. He is her baron or lord, bound to supply her with shelter, food, clothing and medicine, and is ent.i.tled to her earnings and the use and custody of her person, which he may seize wherever he may find it." (Blackstone, I, 442.)[154]

In his Commentaries, after enumerating some of the disabilities of woman under these laws, Blackstone calmly argues that the most of them were really intended for her benefit, "so great a favorite is the female s.e.x with the law of England." He strikes here the keynote of even the special statutes which have superseded the Common Law in the various States, all have been "intended for her benefit," man alone being the judge of what she needed and careful while providing it to retain within himself the exclusive power of law-making. It has been gradually dawning upon him, however, that, as a human being like himself, her needs are very similar to his own, and where he has failed to see it she has reminded him of it as she has slowly learned this fact herself. The laws show an awakening conscience on the part of men and a tardy but continuous advance toward justice to women, although there is yet very much to be desired. For instance, in reading the laws regarding the inheritance of separate property, which in a number of States is now made the same for widow and widower, the first thought will be, "These are absolutely just." But a little investigation will show that the separate property of either is what he or she possesses at marriage or receives afterwards by gift or inheritance, while all that is acquired during marriage by the joint earnings of the two belongs to the husband. In many States the law now provides that if the wife engages in business as a sole trader or goes outside the home to work, her earnings belong to her, but all the proceeds of her labor within the household are still the sole and separate property of the husband. The Common Law on this point, which never has been changed in a single State,[155] makes the services of the wife belong to the husband, and in return she is legally ent.i.tled only to food, shelter and clothes, and these of such quality and quant.i.ty as the husband dictates. She can not dispose by will of any of the property acquired during marriage, nor has she any control of it during the husband's lifetime.

These facts should be borne in mind when reading the laws which declare that husband and wife have the same power to dispose of separate property. Comparatively few women in this country have property when married, especially if young at the time, and the same is true of the majority of men, but afterwards the woman may never hope to acc.u.mulate any, as the joint earnings of the marriage partnership belong exclusively to the husband, and the duties of the average household prevent the wife from engaging in outside work.

However, in order that she might not be left absolutely penniless after years of labor, the Common Law provided that she should be ent.i.tled to "dower," i. e., the possession, for her lifetime, of one-third of all the real estate of which her husband was possessed in fee simple during the marriage. That is, she should receive the life-use of one-third of any realty she might have brought into the marriage and one-third of all they had earned together. But if the husband had converted these into cash, bonds, stocks or other personal property, she could legally claim nothing. He had "curtesy," i. e., the life-use of all her real estate, (sometimes dependent on the birth of children, sometimes not), and usually the whole of her personal estate absolutely.

Curtesy has now been abolished in over one-half the States. The law of dower still exists in more than one-half, but special statutes in regard to personal property and the wife's separate estate have been made so liberal that in comparatively few States is she left in the helpless condition of olden times. In about one-half of them she takes from one-third to the whole (if there are no children) of both real and personal estate absolutely; but in all of them it is only at the death of the husband that she has any share or control of the joint acc.u.mulations except such as he chooses to allow. At the death of the wife all of these belong legally to the husband and she can not secure to her children or her parents any part of the property which she has helped to earn. s.p.a.ce forbids going into a discussion of the general upheaval which follows the death of the husband, the inventories which must be taken, the divisions which must be made, generally resulting in the breaking up of the home; while at the death of the wife all pa.s.ses peacefully into the possession of the husband and there is no scattering of the family unless he wishes it. A general but necessarily superficial statement of the property laws will be found in connection with each State in the following chapters, and they represent a complete legal revolution during the past half century.

Fathers and mothers are given equal guardianship of children in the District of Columbia and nine States--Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Ma.s.sachusetts, Nebraska, New York and Washington. (See Pennsylvania.) In all others the father has the sole custody and control of the persons, education, earnings and estates of minor children. Where this right is abused the mother can obtain custody only by applying for separation or divorce or proving in court the unfitness of the father. In a number of States the father may by will appoint a guardian even of a child unborn, to the exclusion of the mother. In others the widow is legally ent.i.tled to the guardianship but forfeits it by marrying again. Others do not permit a widow to appoint by will a guardian for her children. Tennessee and Louisiana offer examples of the English and French codes in this respect.

Although the father is the sole guardian and ent.i.tled to the services of the children, and although the joint earnings of the marriage belong exclusively to him, and in a number of States he is declared in the statutes to be the "head of the family," in many of them the mother is held to be equally liable for its support. Her separate property may be taken for this purpose and she is also required to contribute by her labor. In such cases the husband decides what const.i.tutes "necessities" and the wife must pay for what he orders. A recent decision of the Illinois courts compelled a wife to pay for the clothes of an able-bodied husband. In most but not all of the States the husband, if competent, is punished for failure to support his family. The punishment consists in a fine, the State thus taking from the family what money he may possess; or confinement in prison, where he is boarded and lodged while the family is in nowise relieved.

It has not been deemed necessary to consider at length the subject of divorce, except to mention the laws of the few States which discriminate against women. South Carolina is the only one which does not grant divorce; New York the only one which makes adultery the sole cause. In the remainder the causes have a wider range, but in all the records show that the vast majority of divorces are granted to wives.