The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-02-06
THE CASE IN CALIFORNIA.

The friends of Woman Suffrage in
California are out with o pertinent man
ifesto in which they eloquently set forth
their grievances, asking the Legislature
that they may be repealed, and the Con-
stitution so amended that women may
vote.
Let our brethren read the following
statement concerning the different legal
rights of men and women, and then ask
themselves if wOman's demand is not
Just. Indeed, the only injustice we see
in the whole matter is the necessity that
woman should be compelled to ask for
that which naturally belongs to her.
To the Honorable the Legislature Of
California IN Senate and assembly
COnUened:
The Board of Control of the California
Woman Suffrage Association has in
structed the undersigned, its officers, to
respectfully represent your Honorable
Bodies,
That Taxation without representa-
tion is tyranny" as much now, as in the
stormy and trying days of the Ameri-
can Revolution.
That "All governments derive their
| Just powers from the consent of the gov
erned," now, and in California, as then,
and in the thirteen revolving American
| Colonies.
That "The natural and inalienable
right of all men to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness" is as important,
pressing and sacred in 1878 as it was in
lT76.
The undersigned further represent that
the Constitution of California, the pro-
visions of which your Honorable
Bodies possess no authority to override
or annul-excluding the women Of tbs
State from the ballot-boX-the reservoir
of all just authority, the very citade
and sanctuary, in q republican form o.
government, of Individual freedom and
collective harmony, and which virtually
enaets laws, defines crimes, determines
and executes their penalties, impose:
taxes, dispenses patronage, and direct
the educational and all the moulding
and controlling conditions of society TO
good or evil-ignOreS not only ou
boasted principles of self-government
the cherished and sacred declarations o
the fathers and founders of our Fedora
Republic, which are now, by the peopl,
of California, theoretically accepted a
political aXioms, but ii also holds then
amenable to laws which they had III
voice in enacting, and to which they
have never been invited to yield thei
assent; laws which deprive them o
their property, their liberty and thei
lives.
The undersigned further represen
J that the women of California are nov
laboring under legal disabilities, which
your Honorable Bodies possess unre
stricted constitutional authority to re
move, few of which they herewith re
specially submit:
First. They are denied official au
thority in the management of the Pub
lie School Department, and are, there
fore, excluded from the most lucrativ,
and honorable positions of teachers
the educational staff, IN large towns ant
cities, are composed of women.
Second. They are practically ex
cluded from sharing the hOnors ant
emoluments of thousands of official DO
sitions, large pay, light work and shor
days, to discharge the duties of most O
which woman is naturally as we'll fitteu
as man.
Third. The laws subject those of tn
femme de pdUe class to indignities and
system OF surveillance, prescription an
oppression, which they do not impOs
upon their male partners in crime.
That the laws discriminate, wit
} cruel severity, against the wife, the FOL
lowing facts indicate:
First. They confer on the husban
the same absolute control over the man
agement and disposition of the commo
property of the husband and wife
"other than testamentary"-wh h
mas over his own separate estate, whic
affords him facilities, if he re so in
: cllned, to defraud his widow of her equi
table share of the family estate.
Second. They deny her the same ab
sOlute dominion over her private prop
erty that is possessed by the husban'
over his individual estate.
Third. They deny to the widow tn
same inheritance of the common prop
erty and the same unrestricted rights u
its management, on the demise oil tn'
husband, that they award to the nus
band on the death OF his wlfe, put at hi'
dacaase- fhe estate goes into probate, tC
be closed up by strangers, by tediou'
and expensive process.
4 Fourth. They allow the husband
while the common property IS IN ms
possession. without requiring even the
formaIity of legal complaint, the tax
ing of an oath or the filing OF BOND,
for the good faith of his action, TO de,
nounce. through the press, his wife, and
forbid her credit.
Fifth. They require the wife, who
NAV be burdened with an Invalid, I'M
becIIe or drunken husband, before she
can transact business legally in her own
name and on her own account to sub