The herald., 1896-03-15

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progress. we find all kinds of legal, politi-
cal and religious slavery. be it of mind or
body, prohibited in the thirteenth amend
ment, except as a punishment for some
crime and the power of the state to re-
tain, or place any law on its statute books,
retaining any person or class of persons in
a condition of domestic peonage to state
laws. customs, usages, rules or regula-
tons, not only abolished, but forever pro-
hibited under the civil rights law of 1867,
section 1890.
This "civil rights law does not define
the sex of the state peon or class of people
freed from Involuntary service of obligation
to the state, custom and constitution, of
holding only the male person as qualified
electOr and citizen entitled to all the labor
privileges and social business right to vote
at all elections. Neither does the text of
the fifteenth amendment define the sex of
the citizens of the United States who are
qualified electors and entitled to vote at
all national elections, no matter what their
race. color or previous condition of servi-
tude to state constitutions and laws, politi-
cal customs. rules and regulations may he.
The married female population of the
United States is a distinct race by itself,
no matter what its color or nationality
NAV be, and is distinguished from the male
race by ply steal. mental and moral quail
fications. The law of 1888. section 1894,
clearly defines this fact of sex in citizen
l
place in the body polite, a public duty to
perform and attend TO, and that is regener-
alton and repopulation for the states and
the nation.
Under the decision of United States
Judge ! j. Leady, for the district of Ore.
gon, 1883. in the case of Leonard VS..
Grant, the phrase "deemed CITIZEN" in
section 1891, constituted a certificate of
naturalization for any woman married to
q citizen of the | nlted States. This fact
OF citizenship secures to her as citizen
the right to vote under the civil rights law,
section 800 and section 2004. The women
prominently identified with the suffrage
movement have never attempted to test
the question under these laws, or as claim
ing citizenship rights under the laws of
C vii rights.
My esteemed correspondent appears to
be IA stroug advocate and believer in estate
rights" which | am not. for under the
national constitution. article q, section 2
the national laws are supreme; thus no
"state has the power to grant or reject the
elective franchise and distinctly afirm who
and who are not eligible to the franchise"
| would like to accept her challenge to
lest the nerve of the registration officials
this fall. but unfortunately | shall not have
been long enough in the state of California
to have gained the citizen qualifications
necessary to enable me to do so. or legally
claim the right to test the question.
AS for gold and silver coin. il having
been made by the national constitution the
legal tender of the states in payment of
debts, must perforce not only accept, but
consider it the correct and proper financial
system, not necessarily corrupt.
L will freely confess that Mrs. Benson's
whole article in reply to mine, her seeming
contempt Tor the ennobling and dignified
position OF matron. the reserve of The wife.
the sacredness of mothers place in the
ast world "a
me the erroneous impression that she was
a disappointed, embittered, unmarried
woman, that dospised all feminine weak
nesses, the happy dependent and care-free
defense of married wonan's life.
Pardon me for saying that do not think
any married woman or mother can afford
10 drop her title of Mrs her claim to
respectful homage. with safety to her self
respect, her dignfied, assured womanly
position, nor refuse to publicly recognize
and carefully observe all the social forms.
customs and usages, the clearly defined
rules of high-bred conventional life,
whether on the platform or in everyday
working Journalistic life.
Where we women have failed to impress
the iustnesS OF our cause upon men. the
recognized lawmakers, aud have not won
recognition as voters. has been that we
have demanded it as men and as a male
eight and masculine privilege. not as wo-
manly right, and wiie's, a mothers di-
vine citizen privilege as educator of future
citizens We have asked it as office Ia
horers, field and factory hands, as clerks
and professional business women,
never as domestic home women, never as
wives, never as mothers. never as femi-
nine womanly social right of the drawing
room and the library, as the privilege of
domestic family. happy. united, loving
and beloved class OF women.
IL is true we differ on some points, but
we agree on the main one. which is to ben
eft and build up the women of our state.
| shall he more than pleased to meet you
on The questions. be il in the columns of
THE HERALD, which has so courteously CIV
en- us space. o Otherwise, as you NAV elect.
Mrs. j. N. CROCKER.
Los Angeles, March /. 1896.