Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-02-21
Women to Practice Law in the q s. Supreme
Court.

Court.
On Saturday last President Hayes signed
the bill admitting women to practice law
in the Supreme Court of the United States
and it is now law. 1t passed the House
last session and passed the Senate last
week by vote of forty to twenty. The
Washington correspondent of the Lynch
burg "Virginian' gives the following ac-
count of the struggle which its patron,
Mrs. Belya Lockwood, a lady who makes
$1,000 per annum by practicing law in
the courts of Washington city, made to
get through the Senate
On the 3rd of March proxmo. Mrs. Belva
A. Lockwood will be admitted to practice
before the Supreme Court Of the United
States. The bill making woman eligible
to practice before the highest and most
august court in this hemisphere has been
pending the Senate for three years, and
its final passage must not be credited to
any great revolution in popular or con-
gressional sentiment, but to the indomita-
BILE persistence of Mrs. Lockwood, the law
yer. The bill had to all appearances been
stifled by two adverse reports of the Judic-
larry Committee. 1t had been voted down
ANONYMOUSLY whenever it dared to show
its face in the Senate. All the great law
yers of that body, Thurman, Edmunds anG
Conkling, were opposed to it. But Mrs.
Lock wood was in favor of it, and her pla ace
at the bar is wen. What she knows from
experience about lobbying would make a
mighty interesting little book. The popu-
lar idea of the successful female lobbyist
is pretty little woman, half Venus, half
Psych e, and all brass, or gorgeous mag
etic, volupJuous creature like the ideal
heroine of the giided age. Mis-. Lockwood
is neither kind of a woman. She forces
-ather than wins her point, but never by
the dint Of the devil and descending looks
Senator Edmunds, only ask you to per
nit me to earn my bread through the same
noble profession that you once earned
yours. | expect you to vote against this
bill, but have the fairness not to oppose
its consideration; allow it to come up on
| its merits.'' II shall oppose taking up the
bill, and l shall vote against it wien it
comes up said the great lawyer. Sena-
| tor Thurman was incorrigible and ungra
cious. The gallant old bachelor Senator
from Kentucky assured Mrs. Lockwood
that he would oppose and vote against the
bill, bat at the last moment relented and
voted for it. Senator Chaffee was gruff
and impolite. 81 don't believe in women,
anyhow" was the logic with which he an
sWered Mrs. Lockwood's rhetoric. WAS
not your mother a woman, and your wife
and daughter ?' This, Senator Chaffee
was unable to deny squarely, and he got
out of the tange by saying that they were
not lawyers. Senator Saunders. of Ne
braska, favored the bill because he seems
to have confounded it with woman's
rights. He said that in his Deighbor,
Wyoming, where women voted, they had
achieved a governmental Utopia, and were
whooping up the millennium faster even
than in New England. Senator Johnston
of Virginia, said: MADAM, it is contrary
to all our ideas of woman in Virginia."
Senator Beck of KY, after listening pa
tiently to Mrs. Lockwood for half an hour
replied: MADAM have heard you through,
| will reflect on what you have said" Exit
Mrs. Lockwood. Senator Beck, solus,
bringing his fist down upon his desk: i'd
if she amt smart woman. I'll vote for
her,
Senator Davis, of III said: ''Print your
ideas, Madam, print
Lamar, OF Miss. "Oh Madam you shall
have my support am in favor Of woman
doing anything she cam"
Senator Hill, of Georgia. MADAM I do
not allow anybody to talk to me about
bill outside the Senate" ''Well, Senator,
can't talk to you inside the Senate, you
have not admitted me.'' You hear me
Madam. do not allow anybody to talk
to me. Print your argument"
4 Of n
Mrs. Lockwood's arg uments: ''That's
conundrum Madam; that's a conun-
drum'' He would have voted against the
bill, but was supplanted by General Shields
who promised careful attention. s'But
General you are soldier and I am a SOL
dier's widow" ''That settles it; that set
ties it, Madam. I'll vote for you.'
Senator Mcdonald, Of Indiana, intro
duced the bill in most effective and dra-
matte manner, and at the most opportune
moment. Senator Thurman was away in
Ohio, the mother of modern Presidents,
Generals and Judges. Senator Edmunds
pied iu vain that the incendiary bill might
not be called up until the return of his
powerful colleague on the judiciary com
mittee. 'sIf thought the Senator from
Vermont had any other object than to de-
feat the bill,'' said Senator Mcdonald, etc
etc. Then Senator Edmunds got mad. 1t
is not agreeable to have ones motives con-
strued and exposed. 'Well if the Senator |
fro m Indiana is mind to hazard his bill
at this time, let it come" 1t came. Taking !
up big roll of memorial and slowly ex-
posii g an immense surface of bad chirog-
raphy, turning it round until it Lroadslded
the whole Senate, and was not without
effect upon the galleries, Here" sad |
Senator Mcdonald, ''are the names of over
two hundred able and distinguished law
years who have practiced with Mrs. Lock-
wood IN the district courts. memorializirg
the Senate for the passage OF this bill. |
And bere,' armlng himself with another !
document as formidable and as illeglble, !
and turning it square upon Senator Conk- !
ling, 'sare the names OF prominent lawyers
of the New York bar" When Senator
Conkllng's name was called on the final
vote, there was silence, no response came |
from his recent throne.
President Hayes will sign the bill, Mr.. |
Rogers. bis private secretary, promised !
Mrs. Lockwood that he would lay it on his |
desk as soon as it was engrossed. He said |
he did not know how the House stood,
meaning Mrs. Hayes, but the President
was in favor of it. That Mrs. Hayes is
not lnimicaI TO the measure may be infer
ed from her sendi. Mrs. Lockwood SIX
bououets. Nor was Mrs. lockwood spar
ing in flowers. 1t must not be supposed
that the habit of her dry and dusty pro"
fession has completely sapped and shrlvelo
ed the fragrant and aesthetic Instincts OF
sex. Next morning syary Senator VINO
had actively favored the bill folne upon
his desk farce bouquet and every Senator
that had votaei far ii had a small noSegay |