Chapter 57

the family, and then declares that no estate in dower is allowed to the wife upon the death of her husband. Neither has she any claim upon any portion of this land the husband, as head of the family, may take, except the homestead, in which she is recognized as joint owner. The preemption claim upon which, in a comfortless claim-shanty, she may have lived for six months, or longer, if upon unsurveyed land, as "the reasonable place and mode of living" her husband has selected for her, does not belong to her at all. She has no part nor share in it. Upon proving, her husband may at once sell, or deed it away as a gift, and she has no redress. It was not hers. The law so declares; but she is her husband's, to the extent that she can be thus used to secure 160 acres of land for him, over which she has no right, title, claim or interest. I have not space to pursue this subject farther, but will assure the women of Dakota that reading the code, and the session laws of the territory will be more interesting to them than any novel. If they wish to still farther know their wrongs, let them look in the code under the heads of "Parent and Child," "Crimes Defined," "Probate Court," etc., etc.

Every woman in Dakota should be immediately at work. Inasmuch as the constitution is the fundamental law of the State, it should be the effort of the women of Dakota to prevent the introduction of the restrictive word "male." The delegates to the Sioux Falls convention have now largely been elected. Address letters of protest to them against making the constitution an organ of class legislation. In as far as possible have personal interviews with these delegates, and by speech make known your wishes on this point. These are your only methods of representation. You have in no way signified your desire for a constitution. You have not been permitted to help make these laws which rob you of property, and many other things more valuable. Many women are settling in Dakota. Unmarried women and widows in large numbers are taking up claims here, and their property is taxed to help support the government and the men who make these iniquitous laws.

I have not mentioned a thousandth part of the wrongs done woman by her being deprived of the right of self-government. Every injustice under which she suffers, as wife, mother, woman, child, in property and person, is due to the fact that she is not recognized as man's political equal--and her only power is that of protest. Lose not a moment, then, women of Dakota, in objecting to the introduction of the word "male" into the proposed new constitution. Besides seeing and writing to delegates, make effort to be present at Sioux Falls during the time of the convention, to labor with delegates from distant points, and to go before committees, and the convention itself, with your protests. Above all, remember that _now_ is the decisive hour.

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, _Vice-President-at-Large_, _National Woman Suffrage Association_.

Mrs. Gage also addressed the following to the constitutional convention:

_Gentlemen of the Convention_: The work upon which you are now engaged is an important one in the interests of liberty, that of framing a constitution for a proposed new State. As a constitution is the fundamental law, its provisions should be general in their character, equally recognizing the rights of all its citizens by its protective powers. Our National principle, that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, is becoming more and more widely recognized.

At an early day suffrage was restricted by qualifications of property and education in many of the States, and the removal of such restrictions has been left entirely to the States, except in the one instance of color. Within the last two decades, by amendments to the national constitution, all States are forbidden to exclude citizens from the ballot upon that account.

As "sex" is now the only remaining disqualification, on behalf of the National Woman Suffrage Association I ask you to omit the word "male" from your proposed constitution, and leave the women of Dakota free to exercise the right of suffrage. We simply ask you to make your State a true republic, in which all your citizens may stand equal before the law. While foreign men of every nation are welcomed to your magnificent prairies as equals, it is humiliating to the women of the territory, who are helping you to develop its resources, who have endured with you all the hardships of pioneer life, to be treated as inferiors, outside the pale of political consideration. It should be the pride of Dakota to take the initiative step in the legislation of the period, now steadily growing more liberal, and by one generous and graceful act accord to the women of this territory all the rights, privileges and immunities that men claim for themselves.

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, _Vice-President-at-Large, N. W. S. A._

_Aberdeen, Dakota, Sept. 3, 1883._

It is to be regretted that the argument presented by Mrs. Gage could not convince that honorable body of the injustice of laws towards woman. To me was given the privilege of addressing the convention. I said:

_Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention_: The honor conferred on me, of being allowed to address you on this important occasion is fully appreciated. I am here in behalf of the women of our territory, who are opposed to being left in the State organization with no more authority in the government than paupers, lunatics and idiots. We are willing to do one-half of the manual labor in this country, and will promptly pay our portion of the taxes. As sober and peaceful citizens, we compare favorably with the other sex. I have the honor to present to you a petition signed by hundreds of Day county voters, praying your honorable body not to allow the word "male" to be incorporated within our State constitution. There is no doubt that this petition speaks the honest sentiment of the people throughout the territory. In but a single instance was I refused a name, and in a second case a man hesitated, saying, "Well, now, if it's as many rights you're wantin' es I hev got fur meself, you'll be after signin' my name fur me--fur I niver do any writin' at all fur meself." And yet that man whose name I had to write has more rights in this, his adopted country, than I and all other women have in this our native land. The right of franchise, which has heretofore been regarded as a privilege, should more properly be considered a right--a right to be exercised by every citizen for the public good. If there is not another woman in Dakota who wants to vote, I do! There is no doubt that many women are indifferent upon this subject, but when once given the ballot you will see that their progress will equal, if not exceed, that of the emancipated slaves in the South. Look at Wyoming Territory, where woman suffrage has a fair test; no one will deny it has proved a marked success. Elections there now are quiet and more orderly than they are elsewhere. Before the enfranchisement of the women of Wyoming, election days were a terror generally, being both boisterous and riotous. It is really true that Dakota men are the most energetic and enterprising anywhere to be found, and in number they largely exceed our women. Gentlemen, make this the most advantageous State for women, and they will soon be wending their way hither. Women have been granted select committees in both Houses of congress, and better still, each of those committees has given us a majority report in favor of a sixteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, prohibiting the disfranchisement of citizens on account of sex. Gentlemen, delegates of this State constitutional convention, I now appeal to your highest sense of honor and justice to give us the right to vote--give it to us, not because we possess any particular merit, but give it to us because it is our right! Then Dakota will in fact be "a home of the free"--honored by all nations, and the Banner State of the Union [applause].

But, after all our work and pleading, they turned a deaf ear--infinitely worse, they were dishonest; at least this was true of the committee on elections. I was present at every meeting of that committee. At their last, I was with them three hours (the entire session) to answer objections. One member made the motion, "that the word 'male' be not incorporated within our State constitution." The vote on the motion was a tie, when the chairman cast his vote in the affirmative. After weeks of hard work I had reached the goal! and with eyes brim full of tears, thanked that committee. They then adjourned, to report in open convention the next morning to my utter surprise, that "Women may vote at school elections and for school officers." No words of mine can express the disappointment and humiliation this defeat of justice caused me.

Among the hundreds of questions asked me by that committee were these: "Do you want a prohibitory plank in our State constitution?" Answer: "No; prohibition should be settled by the people; it cannot be with one-half our citizens disfranchised, and that half its most earnest advocates." "Do you think prohibition prohibits?" "No; man's prohibitory laws are good enough, but he does not enforce them; women have not the authority to do so; but if you will give us the power, we will soon have prohibition that _will_ prohibit." A voice: "I believe it!" "Do you think the majority of women want to vote?" "I do not; but is that any reason why you should deprive the one who does? You do not force men to vote; women, as a rule, have not given this subject the attention they should; many of them are as ignorant of the advantages the ballot would secure as were the negroes when John Brown raised the insurrection at Harper's Ferry."

There is a trite saying: "The darkest hour is just before the dawn." The day cannot be far distant when Dakota's women will be free; for the most intelligent men, and those occupying the most prominent positions in our territory, are avowed friends of suffrage. Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court for Dakota, Hon. A. J. Edgerton, said in his Fourth of July oration here: "How necessary it is for us to elect only good and honest men to office! To do this, woman likewise must act her part in the labor of arresting the advance of crime and corruption, although through timidity the politician is slow to invest her with the higher duties and obligations of American citizenship."

This same just judge has appointed a woman (Mrs. Washburn of Chamberlain) stenographer of his judicial district--the best salaried office in his gift.[454] With the assistance of this grand man (occupying the highest position in our territory), and many others equally efficient, it is not to be supposed that our most intelligent women will be obliged to wait for the education of the most ignorant men to consent to their enfranchisement.

In the last legislature (1885) Major John A. Pickler introduced a bill enfranchising the women of the territory, which, after full discussion, passed the House by 29 to 18,[455] and the Council by 14 to 10. The hopes of the friends were soon disappointed by the governor's veto:

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, BISMARK, D. T., March 13, 1885.

_To the Speaker of the House of Representatives:_

I herewith return House file No. 71, with my objections to its becoming a law. A measure of this kind demands careful and candid consideration, both because of its importance and because of the acknowledged sincerity and high character of those who favor it. There are certain reasons, however, why I cannot approve such a measure at this time, and other reasons why I cannot approve this particular bill. It is desirable, in my judgment, that we act, so far as possible, as if we were governed, restrained and guided by a constitution adopted by ourselves. If we had a constitution modeled after those of the States, an extraordinary proposition like this would be submitted to the people. If congress thinks woman suffrage wise, it has the power to establish it. It is unfair to shift the responsibility on the territory and then hold it responsible for alleged imprudent legislation. I am assured the enactment of this law will delay our claims to statehood, and in so critical a period it is better that no pretext whatever be given for such postponement. It is doubted by many if a majority of the women of Dakota want the franchise. The point is made, and a very good one, that the fact that one woman does not want a right is not a justifiable reason for refusing it to another who does, yet it must not be forgotten that the enfranchisement of women confers not only a privilege but a grave burden and responsibility. We condemn the man who neglects to vote as recreant to his duty. If women are enfranchised, the right conferred becomes an obligation as imperious to them as to men; on those opposed as on those who favor the act. I think the women of Dakota should have a voice in determining whether they should assume this burden or not. So much for the general proposition. There are two other features of this bill which I can scarcely think satisfactory to the advocates of woman suffrage themselves. I am satisfied that they should appear in a measure claiming to advance the rights of women. If the vote of a woman is needed anywhere, it is in our cities. In many existing city charters a distinct clause appears, providing that males alone shall possess the qualifications of electors. In this bill the word "male" is only stricken out of one chapter of the code, leaving the disability still standing against hundreds of women equally entitled to recognition. The women of Sioux Falls, the women of Mitchell, the women of Brookings, the women of Chamberlain, of Watertown and a great many of the more important cities in southern Dakota, would be disqualified from voting under these special enactments, even though this bill became a law at this very session. Charters have been created with that provision retained, and they would make this bill abortive and largely inoperative. A still more objectionable feature, and one deliberately inserted, is the clause debarring women from the right to hold office. If the word "male" had been stricken out of the code, and no other action taken, they would have been eligible, and I believe there is a wide feeling that many offices, particularly those connected with penal and benevolent institutions, could be most appropriately filled with women, but this clause practically forbids their appointment. If women are good enough to vote they are good enough to be voted for. If they are qualified to choose officials, they are qualified to be chosen. I don't say that I would approve this measure were it otherwise worded, but I certainly would not indorse a bill which thus keeps the word of promise to the ear and breaks it to the hope, which deliberately and avowedly debars and disqualifies women while assuming to exalt and honor them. These objections are apart from the abstract right of women to the ballot, but they show how necessary it is to approach such a subject with deliberation. If women are to be enfranchised, let it be done, not as a thirty days' wonder, but as a merited reform resulting from mature reflection, approved by the public conscience and sanctioned by the enlightened judgment of the people.

[Signed:] GILBERT A. PIERCE, _Governor_.

An effort was promptly made to carry the measure over the governor's veto, which failed by a vote of 18 to 26.

During the last session of the legislature a large public meeting was held in Bismarck, at which many of the members spoke strongly in favor of the woman suffrage amendment, the chief-justice and a majority of his associates advocating the measure. Mrs. Gage, in a letter from Dakota, said:

An acquaintance of mine, the owner of a green-house, sent each of the members voting "aye" a buttonhole bouquet, a badge of honor which marked our friends for a few hours at least. It is a pertinent fact that, while the opposition insist that women do not want to vote, in a single county of this sparsely settled territory 222 women did vote in the midst of a severe storm. In a series of articles signed "Justice," published in the Bismarck _Tribune_, we find the following:

The women of Dakota do desire the power to vote. One year ago a majority of the commissioners of Kingsbury county signed a request that at an election to be held March 4, 1884, the women should, with the men, express their wishes by vote upon a specified question of local policy. The women immediately responded, prepared their separate ballot-boxes, placed them in charge of the election officers by the side of the men's boxes upon the same table at De Smet and other towns, and voted all day side by side with the men, casting throughout the county 222 votes. A more orderly election was never known. No self-respect was lost and no woman was lowered in public esteem. Clergymen, lawyers, merchants, farmers, all voted with their wives, the ballots going into different boxes. One thousand men voted in the county. The day was stormy and snow deep on the ground. If 222 women in one county would without previous experience spring forward to vote on a week's notice, is it to be supposed they do not appreciate the right?

JUSTICE.

Mr. Pickler, who had taken an active part in the discussion on the amendment, received many letters of thanks from the friends of woman suffrage throughout the nation, and made his acknowledgments in the following cordial letter to Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage:

FAULKTON, D. T., April 20, 1885.

_Matilda Joslyn Gage, Syracuse, N. Y._:

DEAR MADAM: Your kind letter addressed to me on the Woman Suffrage bill, at Bismarck, would have been earlier acknowledged had it not been that I suffered quite a severe illness upon my return from the legislature. I beg to assure you that words of encouragement from such able and distinguished personages as yourself have been highly appreciated in my effort to secure suffrage for women in Dakota. I am half inclined to think that your indication as to a coming political party, with woman suffrage as one plank in its platform, may not be without foundation.

I introduced the bill in the Dakota legislature, having previously supported a like measure in the Iowa legislature, really without consultation with any one, or without knowledge as to the sentiment of the members upon the question. I have had my convictions since my college days that simple justice demands that woman should have the ballot, and in this opinion I am warmly seconded by my wife, who desires to vote, as I think all sensible women should. I was pleased with the favor the bill received, and after a week or two believed it possible to have it pass the House, with constant exertion and watchfulness. Those who at first laughed at the idea, learning I was very much in earnest, stopped to consider and to discuss, and finally came to vote for it.

It passed the House, and after considerable difficulty in getting it out of the hands of an adverse committee in the Council, who insisted on having it referred to them, it passed with an amendment "to submit to a vote of the people." I managed to have the House refuse to concur in this amendment, which resulted in a conference committee, five out of six of whom reported in favor of the Council receding from their amendment, which they did, and yet, after all, and when we thought it safe, it was vetoed. Few, if any, supposed that Governor Pierce, a governor only appointed over us less than six months, would place himself a barrier in the way of the will of the people, and opposed to the advancement of human rights. I deeply regret that he did not rise to the grandest opportunity of his life, but he failed to do so.

Your words were particularly encouraging, being personally interested in Dakota as you are, and I dare say you will bear witness that we have an intelligent people, and a great many good women, land-owners and property-holders, who should have a voice in the taxation of their property, real and personal. We shall not give it up; we shall continue in the work, not doubting that success will finally crown our efforts. Our constitution is not yet formed, and if ever the political parties cease to exercise their tyranny over us, by allowing us to be admitted as a State, we shall endeavor at least to secure it so the legislature may grant or prescribe the qualifications of voters without requiring a change in the constitution.

Will you visit Dakota again? In another contest we would be much aided by your presence and assistance, confidently believing that "Heaven will one day free us from this slavery." If your children[456] reside in this section of the territory, I should be pleased to form their acquaintance. Again thanking you for your kind words, I am,

Yours truly, J. A. PICKLER.

As Dakota has thus deliberately trampled upon the rights of one-half her people, it is to be hoped that congress will not admit her into the Union until that odious word "male" is stricken from her constitution.

FOOTNOTES:

[453] These counties are Union, Lincoln, Clay, Minnehaha, Moody, Deuel, Codington, Cass, Walsh, Grand Forks, Pembina, Barnes, Lawrence and Hutchinson.

[454] Since 1882 Mrs. Bones has held the office of deputy-clerk of the District Court of Day county; Mrs. Washburn was appointed to her office in 1884; Miss Elizabeth M. Cochrane, appointed by Judge Seward Smith, is clerk of the District Court of Falk county; Mrs. Virginia A. Wilkins is deputy-clerk of the District Court of Hand county; Mrs. Dutton, deputy county-clerk, and Mrs. Hanson deputy-sheriff of Day county; and Mrs. Pease is deputy-receiver of the Watertown Land-office.

[455] _Yeas_--Barnes, Blackmore, Coe, Bayard, Clark, Dermody, Gregg, Hutson, Johnson, Miller, McCall, Parshall, Pierce, Roach, Southwick, Smith, Stebbins, J. P. Ward, Huntington, Hutchinson, Langan, Martin, Morgan, Pickler, Riddell, Steele, Stevens, Sprague, Stewart--29. _Nays_--Davison, Hobart, Larson, McCumber, Oliver, Pugh, Ruger, Strong, Eldridge, Helvig, Myron, McHugh, Runkle, Swanton, Van Osdell, Williams, Mark Ward, Mr. Speaker--18.

[456] Mrs. Gage has a son and daughter residing in Dakota, both well educated, superior young people, whose influence will, no doubt, be felt in every progressive movement in that State. Mrs. Gage's children sympathize with their mother in her broad, liberal views on all questions.--[E. C. S.