Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-09-10
WOMEN AS OFFICE HOLDERS
Solicitor General Victory Elucidates
a Subject OF Deep Concern In
Southern New Mexico.

/
a Subject OF Deep CONCERN In
! Southern New Mexico.
Solicitor General Victory yesterday ad
dsssse the following to oDistriotattorns.
John Franklin, of Eddy:
Sir: Your letter of recent date, il
which my official opinion is asked as tt
whether woman in this territory il
eligible to hold and exercise the duties o
the Office of county school superintend
ent, is at hand, and in reply beg leave te
say:
That all the text writer's on the sub
ject Of public officers unanimously con
clude that the right of suffrage presup
poses the right to hold political Office,
| Mecham, in his admirable treatise, de-
claring, as a general rule, that women
though citizens in the broad and most
comprehensive sense, are not possessed
of any political power and can not, in
the absence of any enabling statute, be
considered eligible to public Office
Throop, later work upon the same sub
ject, adopting and approving Cushing,
another learned writer, uses the follow
ing language:
Similarly each state has regulated for
itself and according to it's own ideas oi
public policy the general qualifications
for holding Office or the qualifications
for holding particular Offices under the
authority of the state. Certain general
principles are common to all, and these
are styled by learned writer the COM
mon political law of this country. We
quote few sentences from his work, in
this connection: The same description
of persons, namely, minors, idiots and
lunatics, women and aliens, who have
already been mentioned as excluded from
the right of suffrage by the common po-
litical law, are also prohibited, and, for
the same reasons, from being elected to
any political Office whatever 1T may
also be laid down as general principle,
founded on the nature of representative
government, which presupposes the cleo
tors, except in particular instances, to
elect from among themselves, that no
person can be elected to any Office who is
not himself possessed of the req uisite
qualifications for an elector; and muet,
at all events, possess the qualifications
and be free from the disq Publications
which attach to the character of1an cleo
tor"
-- am aware that the supreme court of
Kansas, in Wright vs.. Noel, 16 Kans., 6O1,
holds that, inasmuoh as the constitution
of that state was silent as to any restrlc-
tions of freedom OF choice as to whether
females shall vote or hol6 Office, it was,
therefore, fair inference that 1t intend
ed no restriction as to sex, and hence, a
woman being citizen to the same e1-
tent as man in our nation, she was ellgi-
BILE to hold the Office of county superin-
tendent of public instruction, as there
was nothing in the law creating the Office
of superintendent, nor in the duties i'm
posed by law upon such superintendent,
which would imply the necessary excu-
sion of her sex.
But even if we were disposed to follow
the reasoning of the Kansas court, we
would end an insuperable barrier inter-
posed against the right of woman to
hold any elective Office in this territory
in section 6, of the Organic act, which
provides that every white male inhabi-
tant, above the age of 81 years, who shall
have been resident of the territory at
the time of the passage of the act, shall
be entitled to vote at the first election,
and shall be eligible to any Office within
the territory; providing further that the
right of suffrage and of holding Office
shall be exercised only by citizens of the
United States, including those recognized
as citizens by the treaty with the repub-
lie of Mexico, concluded February 2, 1848.
This provision, in my opinion, conclu-
sively limits the right of suffrage and the
right to hold Office to white male iuhabi.
tants above the age of 81 years." and
such limitation has not been since en-
larged except only to the extent that
there shall be no denial of the elective
franchise or of holding Office to citizen
on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude; and the only stat
utory enactment by our legislative as
sembly upon the same subject will be
found in section 1l41 of the Compiled
Laws (1894), which expressly limits and
does not extend the rights of suffrage
and holding office. 1t reading as follows:
"No person prevented by the Organic
law of the territory, no officer or soldier
of the United States army, and no person
included in the term camp followers of
the United States army, shall be entitled
to vote or hold public Office in this terri
tory"
Our legislative assembly, however, has
ample power to confer upon women the
right to hold public school offioes from
county school superintendent down, and
the granting to them of this great pre-
rogative can not come too soon. Her
universally recognized beautiful traits OF
character, her modesty, her evenness of
temper, her truthfulness, and, above all,
her motherly instincts and absolute de.
votion to children, her natural capacity
to understand and anticipate their vari-
GUS needs and wants, peculiarly fit her
for public school work, either as director
or teacher. Educated under the panoply
of her power and influence there can be
no doubt of the ultimate future of the
youth of to-day, the integrity of our
country and loyalty and devotion to its
institutions, for it is by her example and
precept alone, either as mother or teacher,
chat our youth are moulded into good
citizens and encouraged to life of ten.
dernsss, purity and Christian charity.
But, passing upon the law as fnd IL,
Il 10 with regret am Obliged to come to
the conclusion that woman is not at
present eligible to hold and exercise the
duties OF the office of county school sup
srintendsnt. Respectfully,
Solicitor. General Of New Mexico.