The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-09-08
Written for the RevolutiOn.l
MISS ANTHONY FROM OREGON.


returns to her New Jersey cottage to see
her four youngest children of to college |
and boarding school; leone TO this far-Off
Oregon to continue the work of rousing |
the women of this Pacific slope to a
knowledge of the fact of their enfran
chisement.
Our last meetings were at Santa
Cruz, in the beautiful little Unitarian
church built during the Pastorship of
Rev. c. G. Ames in that city, where
we were the guests of Mrs. Ellen r. Van
Nolkenburg, tax-paying widow with
three children, whose name the County
Clerk refused to register, and who,
through her attorney, Judge Hagan, car
ried the question before the District
Judge, Mckee, of Oakland, and after n
full three days arguing of the case, pro
and con, before large audiences, Judge
Hagan most ably presenting our claim
under the original Constitutional guar
antees for equal rights to all citizens, as
well as by the more specific securities of
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend
ments, Judge Mckee, echOing the au-
thor, Judge Bingham, of Ohio, of those
recent assertions, decided that women
are citizens only in matters pertaining
to cirH rights, and not at all in those
pertaining to political rights. Mrs. Van
Volkenburg will not stop with such
l.. I'll or nsr.anl IN fInn
higher courts-directly to the United
States Supreme Court at Washington, if
such thing be possible as to jump the
Circuit Court of the State.
If any of the friends in Santa Cruz
had any doubt rs to the wisdom Of this
"women already voters" ''new depar-
ture," they quickly vanished. Men
who had never given a thought to the
question were debating it at every street
corner, and saying: "Well, neighbor,
what do you think about Judge Nc
KEGS decision? always thought that
what 1 call my wife WIS real en-
tity, but now find that she is nothing.
Really, it is too bad for the Judge
to snatch from us husbands the fancy
that what we loved was something and
somebody -
Whole months Of protracted discus
sions by Woman Suffrage advocates
would not have so awakened the men of
all classes as did this three days argu-
ment in the court room by Government
officials. Oh if only all the Woman
Suffrage newspapers and lecturers could
but have seen this ne,0 occasion, and at
tuned all their words and actions to its
Rct0 duties, what revivals, what conver-
sions, what hosts Of new workers should
we have rejoiced over to-day. With
the RccOlution and WOmd|S Journal
on the east side the Rocky Mountains,
and the Pioneer and NEW NORTHWEST
on this side, adding the weight Of their
influence to the "iistdnh ia season and
ont Of season" WoodhUH and Cydfn's
Weekly, all as one voice shouting their
earnest appeals from week to week
during the past eight months, urging
every woman u especially every tax
paying widow-to tender her name and
her vote to the proper officers of her
election district, and, if rejected, to sue
them in the courts, we should have had
tens Of thousands of court room scenes
like this one of Santa Cruz, and through
them the entire nation all ablaze with
enthusiasm, ready to accept the situa-
tiOn, viz: Women are persOns-henee
eitizens-hence voters endowed, not
only by their Creator, but by their Gov
ernment also, with 'the inalienable
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
But, perchance, the his
toric "Forty years in the Wilderness"
might have been interfered |
with by such unity of purpose and plan
i'm our ranks; and hence each person, |
party and paper given over to the advo-
eacy of some pet route, apart from
all the others, to the goal each and all
so much desire to reach, may be a part
of the Chow not to do it'' scheme of the
arch enemy of woman's freedom, to
which we should bow as TO the inevit- !
able.
The New NORTHWEST, published
here by Mrs. \. J. Duniway, says you
do not come in exchange. OF course it |
is an oversight, for you cannot but wish |
to recognize this NEW NORTHWEST
to our ranks. Mrs. Duniway
is sprightly, intelligent young woman,
filling the office of wife and mother to /
the full requirement of the law, having
five sons and one daughter. She has
been successful as farmers wife, school
teacher, music teacher, public speaker,
dressmaker and housekeeper,
and her life has not yet reached its me-
ridian. Her newspaper is sprightly,
vigorous and prosperous. Her three
oldest sons-boys from sixteen to ten
set the type her daughter-a fine mu-
'ician-will sing a Woman Suffrage
song, composed by her
mother, at my lecture on the 9th her
sensible man-is proud that
his wife possesses brains and seIf-respect
o use them.
Remember, Congress meets the first
# December, and will need to feel the I