The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 112

Mrs. Hall, who had been president during the whole period of active life of the a.s.sociation, declined re-election. She did so with the greatest reluctance, but felt that the increasing pressure of work made it important that some one with more leisure at her disposal should fill the office. Mrs. s.e.xton was elected president.[370]

Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey is the largest contributor in New Jersey to the suffrage cause in general. Since many of her donations have been made to the National a.s.sociation directly, not pa.s.sing through the hands of the State treasurer, they can not be computed here, nor does she herself know their full amount. She has given also most liberally to State work and her contributions run well up into the thousands. A number of New Jersey women have been made life members of the National a.s.sociation by her. She is a member of its organization committee.[371]

In early days Mrs. Theresa Walling Seabrook stood almost alone in the W. C. T. U. in her advocacy of woman suffrage and it required ten years of effort to secure a franchise department, of which she was made the first superintendent. For many years, however, this organization has been an active and helpful force and undoubtedly has made numerous converts, besides securing valuable legislation. The Grange has been always a faithful ally of the woman suffrage cause.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: On Feb. 13, 1884, a special committee of the a.s.sembly granted a hearing on the pet.i.tion of Mrs. Celia B.

Whitehead and 220 others, asking the restoration of the right of Full Suffrage which had been unconst.i.tutionally taken away from women in 1807. (See Suffrage.) Henry B. Blackwell and the Rev. Phoebe A.

Hanaford of Ma.s.sachusetts and Mrs. Theresa Walling Seabrook presented the question. They asked also for School Suffrage. The committee reported favorably on both measures. The former reached a vote and was defeated by 24 yeas, 27 nays.

In 1887 Dr. William M. Baird, Speaker of the a.s.sembly, had a bill introduced conferring School Suffrage on women in villages and country districts, and advocated it from the floor. It pa.s.sed unanimously, March 23, not on its merits but because the Speaker wanted it. It was pa.s.sed by the Senate March 31, by 15 yeas, 2 nays, and signed April 8, by Gov. Robert S. Green.

This year Aaron M. Powell and the Rev. A. H. Lewis secured a law raising the "age of protection" for girls from 10 to 16.

In 1894 the courts decided that the law granting School Suffrage to women was unconst.i.tutional and that an amendment to the const.i.tution would be necessary to enable them to exercise it. The suffrage a.s.sociation immediately took steps to secure a resolution submitting this amendment to the electors, as previously described. In 1895 it was introduced in the Senate by Foster M. Voorhees (now Governor) and pa.s.sed in June by 13 yeas, 2 nays. It pa.s.sed the a.s.sembly by 36 yeas, one nay. It had to be acted upon by two Legislatures. In March, 1896, it pa.s.sed the Senate unanimously; and the a.s.sembly by 57 yeas, one nay. A technicality required it to pa.s.s the third Legislature, which it did in March, 1897--Senate, 15 yeas, 1 nay; a.s.sembly, 42 yeas, 5 nays.

In April, 1894, it was enacted that women might be notaries.

In March, 1895, a bill was secured making women eligible to appointment as Commissioners of Deeds, after having failed in 1891, '92 and '94, and Miss Mary M. Steele was appointed.

In 1896 Miss Mary Philbrook, an attorney, with the help of the suffrage officials, secured a bill making women eligible as Masters in Chancery and was herself the first one appointed.

This year the State Teachers' a.s.sociation secured a law permitting a Teachers' Retirement Fund to be created, which, with some amendments in 1899, enables a teacher after twenty years' service, if incapacitated for further work, to receive from $250 to $600 per annum. Some improvement also was made in the property laws for women.

In April, 1898, through the efforts of the Federation of Women's Clubs, a law was pa.s.sed and an appropriation made for State Traveling Libraries.

Dower and curtesy obtain. The widow is ent.i.tled to a life use of one-third of the real estate and, if there is a child or children, to one-third of the personal property absolutely; if there are no children, to one-half of it. The remainder of the real and personal estate goes to the husband's kindred. "The widow may remain in the mansion house of her husband free of rent until dower is a.s.signed."

The widower is ent.i.tled to the life use of all the wife's real estate, and if there is no will, to all her personal property without administration. She may, however, dispose of all of it by will as she pleases. She can not by will deprive the husband of his curtesy in real estate, except by order of the Court of Chancery when she is living separate from him. She can not enc.u.mber or dispose of her separate estate without his joinder. He can mortgage or convey his real estate without her joinder but it is subject to her dower. Her separate property is liable for her debts but not for those of her husband.

Since 1895 a married woman may contract as if unmarried, and sue and be sued in her own name as to property, but for personal injuries the husband must join. She can not become surety.

Since 1896 she may carry on business in her own name, her earnings and wages are her separate property, and her deposits in savings banks are free from the control of her husband.

The father is the legal guardian of the persons and estates of minor children. At his death the mother becomes guardian. In case of separation with no misconduct on the part of either, the mother has the preference until the child is seven years old, after which the rights are equal. Provision is made for the access of the mother to infant children. On the death of the one to whom the child is a.s.signed it is subject to the order of the court.

The husband must furnish such support as will maintain the wife in the position in which he has placed her by marriage. If he refuse he must give bonds or go to jail. The wife must contribute to the support of the family if the husband is unable.

The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years in 1887. The penalty is a fine not exceeding $1,000 or imprisonment at hard labor not exceeding fifteen years, or both. No minimum penalty is named.

No girl under fourteen shall be employed in a factory, and no children under fourteen shall be employed in any workshop or factory over ten hours a day or sixty hours a week. The failure of employers to provide seats for female employes beside a work bench or counter shall be punished as a misdemeanor.

SUFFRAGE: New Jersey is the first State in which a woman ever cast a ballot. The const.i.tution adopted July 2, 1776, conferred the franchise on "all inhabitants worth $250, etc." In 1790 a revision of the election law used the words "he or she," thus giving legislative sanction to a construction of the const.i.tution which placed women in the electorate. While the records show that women did vote for various officers, including President of the United States and members of the Legislature, yet in those days of almost absolute male supremacy, when it was not customary for women to own even $250 worth of property and all they possessed became the husband's at marriage, it is not to be supposed that very many could avail themselves of the privilege.

Enough did so, however, to make them a factor in the fierce political contentions which soon arose, and to gain the enmity of politicians.

In 1807 the Legislature pa.s.sed an arbitrary act limiting the suffrage to "white male citizens." This was clearly a usurpation of authority, as the const.i.tution could be changed only by action of the voters.

Nevertheless, men were in power and women were no longer permitted to exercise the franchise.

In 1844 a convention framed a new const.i.tution in which the suffrage was restricted to "white males," and only men were allowed to vote on its adoption. Women were still electors according to the existing const.i.tution, and yet they were not permitted to vote for delegates to this convention nor for the ratification of the new const.i.tution. No Supreme Court could have rendered any other decision than that this was illegally adopted.

For exactly eighty years women were deprived of any franchise. During the last twenty of this period they made repeated efforts to vote and presented numerous pet.i.tions to the Legislature to have their ancient right restored. In 1887 this body enacted that women might vote at school meetings (i. e. in villages and country districts) for trustees, bonds, appropriations, etc.

In 1893 a law was enacted giving the right to vote for Road Commissioner to "all freeholders." An election was very soon contested at Englewood, and in June, 1894, the Supreme Court decided that the act was illegal because "it is not competent for the Legislature to enlarge or diminish the cla.s.s of voters comprehended within the const.i.tutional definition." [The court had forgotten about that Legislature of 1807.]

This gave the opportunity for those who were opposed to women's exercising the School Suffrage. At a special election for school trustees held in Vineland, July 27, 1894, the women were forcibly prevented from depositing their ballots. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction was appealed to and he directed the county superintendent to appoint a board of trustees, as the election from which the women were excluded was illegal. This was done on the advice of the Attorney-General, who held that the const.i.tution by empowering the Legislature to "provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free public schools," gave it the power to confer on women the right to vote at school meetings for school officers.

Without following the details it is only necessary to relate that the Supreme Court declared that "the State const.i.tution says, 'Every male citizen, etc., shall be ent.i.tled to vote for all officers that are now or may be hereafter elective by the people' (!) and school trustees are elective officers within this provision, therefore the Act allowing women to vote for them is unconst.i.tutional."

Women had been voting for these officers seven years under this Act, and always for the benefit of the schools, according to the almost universal testimony of educational authorities. It now became necessary, in order to continue this privilege, to obtain an amendment to the const.i.tution. The story of the three years' effort made by the State Suffrage a.s.sociation for this purpose is related earlier in the chapter. Since this had to be made they begged that the amendment might include School Suffrage for the women in towns and cities also, but this was refused. And yet even a proposition to restore School Suffrage to those of villages and rural districts, when submitted to the voters, was defeated at the election on Sept. 28, 1897, by 65,029 yeas, 75,170 nays, over 10,000 majority.

While the Supreme Court decision took away the vote for trustees it did not interfere with the right of women in villages and country districts to vote on questions of bonds and appropriations for the building of schoolhouses and other school purposes, and that is the amount of suffrage now possessed by women in New Jersey. When the school laws were revised in 1900 this fragment was carefully guarded and provision made for furnishing two boxes, one in which the men might put their vote on all school matters, and the other where women might put theirs on the ones above specified.

OFFICE HOLDING: In 1873 a law was pa.s.sed that "no person hereafter shall be eligible to the office of school trustee unless he or she can read and write," and women were authorized to serve when duly elected.

In 1894, when the School Suffrage was taken away by the Supreme Court, thirty-two were holding the office and the decision did not abrogate this right. They have continued to be elected and twenty-seven are serving at the present time. At Englewood, in 1899, Miss Adaline Sterling was president of the board. Women are not eligible as State or county superintendents.

Four of the nine trustees of the State Industrial School for Girls are women, and a woman physician is employed when one is needed.

Dr. Mary J. Dunlop has been superintendent and medical director of the State Inst.i.tution for Feeble-Minded Women since 1886, and three of the seven managers are women.

There are no women physicians in any other State inst.i.tution and no law requiring them. In most of the hospitals there are training schools for nurses with women superintendents.

The State Board of Children's Guardians has a woman chairman of the executive committee, and a woman attorney.

The State Charities Aid a.s.sociation has seven women on the Board of Managers, including the general secretary. Women sit on the boards of the State School for Deaf Mutes, the Home for Waifs and those of some county asylums. Most of the almshouses have matrons in the female department but there are no women on the boards of management.

A matron and three a.s.sistants are in charge of the women in the penitentiary and there is a matron at the jails of most cities. In some of them police matrons have been appointed, but no law requires this.

In the State Hospital at Trenton over eighty women are employed, including four supervisors, a librarian, stenographers, nurses, etc.

In the State Home for Boys there are over twenty women, including princ.i.p.al of school, teachers, matrons, typewriters, etc.

There are women on a number of Public Library Boards, and one, at least, acts as treasurer. The head librarian and all the a.s.sistants of the Plainfield public library are women. Sixty of the ninety-nine public libraries in the State employ women librarians, and five are served by volunteers. Most of the a.s.sistants in all cities are women.

Women act as masters in chancery, commissioners of deeds and notaries public, and one at least has served as district clerk.

OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. Admission to the bar having been denied to Miss Mary Philbrook, in 1894, solely on account of her s.e.x, she requested a hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the Legislature of 1895, which was addressed by Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, president of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation, Mrs. Carrie Burnham Kilgore, a lawyer of Philadelphia, and Miss Philbrook herself. Soon afterward a law was enacted making women eligible to examination for admission to the bar, which, in June, was pa.s.sed successfully by Miss Philbrook, who thus became the first woman lawyer. There are now eight. In 1899, Miss Mary G. Potter of the New York Bar, Miss Philbrook of the New Jersey Bar, and Dr.

Mary D. Hussey of the New York University Law School, called a meeting of women attorneys at East Orange. A committee was appointed which organized the Women Lawyers' Club in New York, on June 24, with members in both States.

There are about one hundred women physicians in the State, seventy-five allopathic and the rest belonging to other schools. They are members of most of the county medical societies, which makes them members of the State Medical Society. Dr. Sarah F. Mackintosh was the first woman admitted to a county society (Pa.s.saic) in 1871. Dr.

Frances S. Janney was elected president of the Burlington County Medical Society in 1900, the first to receive such an honor. The first meeting of women physicians took place in Atlantic City, June, 1900, when those of the State gave a reception to those from other States who were attending the convention of the American Medical a.s.sociation.

The Medical Club of Newark, the first organization of women physicians, was formed the next November, with seventeen charter members from Newark and its vicinity, Dr. Katherine Porter of Orange, president.

EDUCATION: Princeton University is closed to women, and so are Princeton Theological Seminary (Presb.), Drew Theological Seminary (Meth. Epis.) and Rutgers College (Dutch Reformed). There is no college for women in New Jersey. The State Normal School is co-educational.

In the public schools there are 833 men and 5,806 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $86.21; of the women $48.12. In Plainfield the princ.i.p.als of all the public schools, except the High School, are women. This is due to the fact that the city superintendent from 1881 to 1892 was a woman, Miss Julia Buckley (afterwards dean of the woman's department of Chicago University), and the custom established by her has been continued.

New Jersey has so many a.s.sociations of women that they have acted as a bar against the formation of suffrage clubs, women feeling that they had already too many meetings to attend. The State Federation of Women's Clubs has been an active and progressive force. It secured State Traveling Libraries; and if the Palisades are preserved from destruction, as now seems likely, this will be due to its earnest efforts. It was influential, in 1899, in having the kindergarten made a part of the public school system. It also has a town improvement department, with numerous branches. Several of its auxiliary clubs have founded public libraries, and some of them have conducted campaigns to put women on the school board. Other clubs have supported kindergartens and arranged free lectures for the public.

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