Volume III Part 72 (1/2)
From the following description by Mrs. Devereux Blake, we have conclusive evidence of woman's capacity to govern under most trying circ.u.mstances:
A certain little woman living in Jersey City has, from time to time, occupied a portion of public consideration; this is Mrs. Ericka C. Jones, for four years and a half warden of the Hudson county jail, probably the only woman in the world who holds such a position. Her history is briefly this: Some seven years ago her husband obtained the appointment of jailor at this inst.i.tution, and moved to it with his bride.
From the time of their incoming a marked improvement in the administration of the jail became apparent, which continued, when, after two years, Mr. Jones was stricken down with softening of the brain, which reduced him to a condition of idiocy for six months before his death. When at last this occurred, by unanimous vote of the board of freeholders the woman who had really performed the duties of jailor was appointed warden of Hudson county jail. All this has been a matter of report in the papers, as well as the attempt to oust her from the position, which was made last fall, when certain male politicians wanted the place for some friend and voter, and appealed to Attorney-General Vanetta, who gave an opinion adverse to the lady's claims. Resolutions on the subject were pa.s.sed by various woman suffrage societies, and anxious to see the subject of so much dispute, and hear her story from her own lips, a party of ladies was made up to call upon her.
Hudson-county jail stands in the same inclosure with the court-house, a small, neatly-kept park, well shaded by fine trees, and being on very high ground commands a view over the North River and New York Bay. The building is a substantial one of stone, with nothing of the repulsive aspect of a jail about it. Asking for Mrs. Jones, we were at once shown into the office. We had expected to see a woman of middle age and somewhat stern aspect. Instead, we beheld a pretty, young person, apparently not more than twenty-five years old, with bright, black eyes, waving brown hair, good features and plump figure. She was very neatly dressed and pleasant in manner, making us cordially welcome. We were conducted into the parlor and at once begged her to tell us all about her case, which she did very clearly and concisely. When she was left a widow with two little children she had no idea that this place would be given her, but it was tendered to her by unanimous vote of the board of freeholders. At that time there were in jail three desperate criminals, Proctor, Demsing and Foley, bank robbers, and some persons feared that a woman could not hold them, but they were safely transferred at the proper time from the jail to the state-prison. ”And,” she added, with a bright smile, ”I never have lost a prisoner, which is more than many men-jailors can say. Some of them tried to escape last fall, but I had warning in time, sent for the police, and the attempt was prevented.”
”And do you think there is any danger of your being turned out?” ”I don't know. I intend to remain in the place until the end of my term, if possible, since as long as the effort to dismiss me is based solely on the ground of my s.e.x and not of my incompetency, it ought justly to be resisted.”
”But Attorney-General Vanetta gave an adverse opinion as to the legality of your appointment?” ”Yes, but ex-Attorney-General Robert Gilchrist, a very able lawyer, has given an opinion in my favor, while Mr. Lippincott, counsel of the board when I was appointed, also held that I was eligible for the place.”
She then went on to tell us some of the petty persecutions and indirect measures Which have been resorted to in order to induce her to resign, as her term of office will not expire for two years. When her husband was given the position, the allowance consisted of 40 cents a day for each prisoner, 50 cents for each sick person, 25 cents for every committal, and 12-1/2 cents for every discharge. The daily allowance has been cut down from 40 to 25 cents, and all the other allowances have been entirely done away with. She is, therefore, at this moment running that jail on 25 cents a day for each prisoner. Out of this sum she must pay for all food, all salaries of a.s.sistant jailors, etc., all wages of servants, and even the furniture of the place. She is supplied with fuel and gas, but no stores of any description. She has also had other annoyances. The payment of money justly due has been opposed or delayed; and whereas her husband was required to give bond for only $5,000, she has been forced to give one for $10,000. She has also been troubled by the visits of persons representing themselves to be reporters of papers, who have wished to borrow money of her, and failing in this, have printed disagreeable articles about her. She has, of course, no salary whatever. ”However, I do as well as I can with the money I receive,” she said, with that pleasant smile. ”And now would you like to see the jail?” * * * *
Ex-Attorney Gilchrist's opinion on her case is an able indors.e.m.e.nt of her position. He says, in the first place, that as Attorney-General Vanetta's adverse view was not given officially, it is not binding on the Board of Freeholders, and then goes on to cite precedents. ”Alice Stubbs, in 1787, was appointed overseer of the poor in the county of Stafford, England, and the Court of King's Bench sustained her in the office. A woman was appointed governor of the work-house at Chelmsford, England, and the court held it to be a good appointment. Lady Brangleton was appointed keeper of the Gate-House jail in London. Lady Russell was appointed keeper of the Castle of Dunnington. All these cases are reported in _Stranges R._, as clearly establis.h.i.+ng the right and duty of woman to hold office. The case of Ann, Countess of Pembroke, Dorsett and Montgomery, who was sheriff of Westmoreland, is very well known.” The opinion winds up by saying: ”The argument that a woman is incompetent to perform the duties of such an office is doubly answered--first, by the array of cases in which it is held that she is competent; second, by the resolution of the board when Mrs. Jones was appointed, that she had for a long time prior thereto actually kept the jail while her husband was jailor.” How this whole matter would be simplified if women could vote and hold office, so that merit and not s.e.x should be the only qualification for any place.--_New York Record, 1876._
The following incident shows not only what physical training will do in giving a girl self-reliance in emergencies, but it shows the nice sense of humor that grows out of conscious power with which a girl can always take a presuming youth at disadvantage.
No doubt Miss McCosh, as a student in Princeton, could as easily distance her compeers in science, philosophy and the languages, as she did the dude on the highway. Why not open the doors of that inst.i.tution and let her make the experiment?
The distinguished president of Princeton College, Dr.
McCosh, has two daughters who are great walkers. They are in the habit of going to Trenton and back, a distance of about twenty miles, where they do their shopping. One day a dude accosted Miss Bridget on the road, and said, in the usual manner: ”Beg pardon, but may I walk with you?” She replied, ”Certainly,” and quickened her pace a little. After the first half-mile the masher began to gasp, and then, as she pa.s.sed on with a smile, he sat down panting on a mile-stone, and mopped the perspiration from his brow.
At the sixteenth national convention, held in Was.h.i.+ngton, March, 1884, the State was well represented;[283] Mrs. Hanaford gave an address on ”New Jersey as a Leader.” In her letter to the convention, Mrs. Hussey wrote:
An old gentleman, Aaron Burr Harrison, a resident of East Orange, has just pa.s.sed on to his long home, full of years--eighty-eight--and with a good record. He told me about his sister's voting in New jersey, when he was a child--probably about 1807. The last time I took a pet.i.tion for woman suffrage to him, he signed it willingly, and his daughter also.
February 12, 1884, a special committee of the New Jersey a.s.sembly granted a hearing[284] on the pet.i.tion of Mrs. Celia B.
Whitehead, and 220 other citizens of Bloomfield, asking the restoration of woman's right to vote; fully one-half of the members of the a.s.sembly were present. Mrs. Seagrove handed the committee an ancient printed copy of the original const.i.tution of New Jersey, dated July 2, 1776. The name of James Seagrove, her husband's grandfather, is endorsed upon it in his own hand-writing. In the suffrage clause of this doc.u.ment the words ”all inhabitants” were subst.i.tuted for those of ”male freeholders” in the provincial charter. Hence the const.i.tution of 1776 gave suffrage to women and men of color. Mrs. Seagrove made an appeal on behalf of the women of the State. Mr. Blackwell gave a resume of the unconst.i.tutional action of the legislature in its depriving women of their right to vote. Mrs. Hanaford, in answer to a question of the committee, claimed the right for women not only to vote but to hold office; and instanced from her own observation the need of women as police officers, and especially as matrons in the police stations. The result of these appeals may be seen in a paragraph from the Boston _Commonwealth_, a paper in hearty sympathy:
In the lower House of the New Jersey legislature a Democratic member recently moved that the word ”male” be stricken from the const.i.tution of the State. After some positive discussion a non-partisan vote of 27 to 24 defeated the motion. This occurrence, it is to be observed, is chronicled of one of the most conservative States in the Union. The arguments used on both sides were not new or remarkable. But the vote was very close. If such a measure could in so conservative a State be nearly carried, we can have reasonable hope of its favorable reception, in more radical sections. In New Jersey we did not expect success for the resolution proposed. The favorable votes really surprised us. We do not mistake the omen. Gradually the point of woman's responsibility is being conceded. The arbitrary lines now drawn politically and socially are without reason. Indeed, one of the members of the New Jersey a.s.sembly called attention to the fact that to grant suffrage now would not be the conferring of a new gift on women, but only a restoration of rights exercised in colonial times.
FOOTNOTES:
[274] See Vol. I., page 447.
[275] Mrs. Pryor lived formerly in Waterloo, New York. She was present at the first convention at Seneca Falls, and sustained the demand for woman suffrage with earnest sympathy. I have been indebted to her for a splendid housekeeper, trained by her in all domestic accomplishments, who lived in my family for thirty years, a faithful, devoted friend to me and my children. Much that I have enjoyed and accomplished in life is due to her untiring and unselfish services. My cares were the lighter for all the heavy burdens she willingly took on her shoulders. The name of Amelia Willard should always be mentioned with loving praise by me and mine. Her sympathies have ever been in our reform. When Abby Kelly was a young girl, speaking through New York in the height of the anti-slavery mobs, Margaret Pryor traveled with her for company and protection. Abby used to say she always felt safe when she could see Margaret Pryor's Quaker bonnet.--[E. C. S.
[276] In a letter to Mary F. Davis, February 13, 1882, asking her for some facts in regard to that period, Lucy Stone says: ”I have never kept any diary or record of my work. I have been too busy with the work itself. I could not answer your questions without a search among old letters and papers, which have been packed away for years, and I have not time to make the search, and cannot be accurate without. I know we had many meetings in New Jersey in all the large towns, beginning in Newark and Orange, and following the line of the railroad to Trenton, Camden, and Vineland, and then another series that included towns reached by stage, Salem being one, but I cannot tell whether these meetings were before or after the formation of the State Society.” The records show that they were before, says Mrs. Davis; newspaper reports of them are in the archives of the Historical Society.
[277] _President_, Lucy Stone, Roseville; _Vice-Presidents_, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Thomas B. Peddie, Portia Gage, Rev.
Robert McMurdy, Cornelia Collins Hussey, George T. Cobb, Sarah E.
Webb, Dr. James Brotherton, Isaac Stevens, Rev. H. A. Butler, A. J.
Davis, James H. Nixon, Dr. G. H. Haskell, I. M. Peebles, Rev. C. H.
Dezanne, William Baldwin; _Corresponding Secretaries_, Phebe A.
Pierson, Miss P. Fowler; _Recording Secretary_, C. A. Paul; _Treasurer_, S. G. Silvester; _Executive Committee_, Mary F. Davis, Mrs. E. L. Bush, H. B. Blackwell, Rev. Oscar Clute, Miss Charlotte Bathgate, Rowland Johnson, Mrs. Robert McMurdy, Dr. D. N. Allen, Sarah Pierson, Lizzie Prentice, W. D. Conan, John Whitehead.
[278] Among those who addressed the conventions and the legislature we find the names of Lucretia Mott, Ernestine L. Rose, Lucy Stone, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Mary F. Davis, Charlotte B. Wilbour, Elizabeth R. Churchill, Elizabeth A. Kingsbury, Deborah Butler, Olive F. Stevens, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Mrs. Devereux Blake, Rev.
Oscar Clute, Rev. Olympia Brown, Rev. Mr. McMurdy, Mr. Taylor, John Whitehead, Mrs. Seagrove, Henry B. Blackwell, Hon. James Scovell.
[279] This has been well ill.u.s.trated by Mrs. Hanaford in her own case, she having preached for nearly twenty years with but three changes of place, and ten of these pa.s.sed successively in the Universalist churches in Jersey City.--[E. C. S.
[280] VINELAND, July 15, 1879.--Club met at the residence of Mrs.
Bristol. The meeting was opened with music by Mrs. Parkhurst, followed by a recitation by Miss Etta Taylor. Mrs. Andrew read an excellent essay, opposing the national bank system. Mrs. Bristol gave an instructive lesson in political economy on ”Appropriation.”