Volume III Part 97 (1/2)
CHAPTER XLVI.
WISCONSIN.
Progressive Legislation--The Rights of Married Women--The Const.i.tution Shows Four Cla.s.ses Having the Right to Vote--Woman Suffrage Agitation--C. L. Sholes' Minority Report, 1856--Judge David Noggle and J. T. Mills' Minority Report, 1859--State a.s.sociation Formed, 1869--Milwaukee Convention--Dr. Laura Ross--Hearing Before the Legislature--Convention in Janesville, 1870--State University--Elizabeth R. Wentworth--Suffrage Amendment, 1880, '81, '82--Rev. Olympia Brown, Racine, 1877--Madame Anneke--Judge Ryan--Three Days' Convention at Racine, 1883--Eveleen L. Mason--Dr. Sarah Munro--Rev. Dr.
Corwin--Lavinia Goodell, Lawyer--Angie King--Kate Kane.
For this digest of facts in regard to the progress of woman in Wisconsin we are indebted to Dr. Laura Ross Wolcott,[418] who was probably the first woman to practice medicine in a Western State.
She was in Philadelphia during all the contest about the admission of women to hospitals and mixed cla.s.ses, maintained her dignity and self-respect in the midst of most aggravating persecutions, and was graduated with high honors in 1856 from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, of which Ann Preston,[419] M. D., was professor for nineteen years, six years dean of the faculty, and four years member of the board of incorporators. After graduation Laura Ross spent two years in study abroad, and, returning, commenced practice in Milwaukee, where she has been ever since.
By an act of Congress approved May 29, 1848, Wisconsin was admitted to the Union. Its diversity of soil and timber, the healthfulness of its climate and the purity of its waters, attracted people from the New England and Middle States, who brought with them fixed notions as to moral conduct and political action, and no little repugnance to many of the features of the old common law. Hence in Wisconsin's territorial conventions and legislative a.s.semblies many of the progressive ideas of the East were incorporated into her statutes. Failing to lift married women into any solid position of independence, the laws yet gave them certain protective rights concerning the redemption of lands sold for taxes, and the right to dispose of any estate less than a fee without the husband's consent. In case of divorce the wife was ent.i.tled to her personal estate, dower and alimony, and with the consent of her husband she could devise her real estate. She was ent.i.tled to dower in any lands of which the husband was seized during marriage. Gen. A. W. Randall was active in making the first digest and compilation of the laws of Wisconsin.
The legislature of 1850 was composed of notably intelligent men.
Nelson Dewey was governor, Moses M. Strong, a leading lawyer, speaker of the a.s.sembly, and the late Col. Samuel W. Beal, lieutenant-governor. Early in the session a bill was introduced, ent.i.tled ”An act to provide for the protection of married women in the enjoyment of their own property,” which provoked a stormy debate. Some saw the dissolution of marriage ties in the destruction of the old common-law doctrine that ”husband and wife are one, and that one the husband”; while arguments were made in its favor by Hon. David Noggle, George Crasey, and others.
Conservative judges held that the right to own property did not ent.i.tle married women to convey it; therefore in 1858 the law was amended, giving further security to the wife to transact business in her own name, if her husband was profligate and failed to support her; but not until 1872 did the law protect a married woman in her right to transact business, make contracts, possess her separate earnings, and sue and be sued in her own name. The legislature of 1878 reenacted all the former laws; and married women may now hold, convey and devise real estate; make contracts and transact business in their own names; and join with their husbands in a deed, without being personally liable in the covenants. In the matter of homesteads, the husband cannot convey or enc.u.mber without the signature of the wife, and thus a liberal provision is always secure for her and the children.
By the law of 1878, if the husband dies leaving no children and no will, his entire estate descends to his widow.[420] If the owner of a homestead dies intestate and without children, the homestead descends, free of judgments and claims--except mortgages and mechanics' liens--to his widow; if he leaves children, the widow retains a life interest in the homestead, continuing until her marriage or death.
Thus from the organization of the State, Wisconsin has steadily advanced in relieving married women from the disabilities of the old common law. The same liberal spirit which has animated her legislators has admitted women to equality of opportunities in the State University at Madison; elected them as county superintendents of public schools; appointed them on the State board of charities, and as State commissioners to a foreign exposition;[421] and welcomed them to the professions of medicine, law and the ministry.
By the const.i.tution of Wisconsin the right of suffrage was awarded to four cla.s.ses of citizens, twenty-one years and over, who have resided in the State for one year next preceding an election.
_First_--Citizens of the United States.
_Second_--Persons of foreign birth who have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States.
_Third_--Persons of Indian blood who have already been declared by act of congress citizens of the United States.
_Fourth_--Civilized persons of Indian descent who are not members of any tribe.
While thus careful to provide for all males, savage and civilized, down to one thousand Indians outside their tribe, the const.i.tution in no way recognizes the women of the State, one-half its civilized citizens. However, the question of woman suffrage was early agitated in this State, and its advocates were able men. In 1856 there was an able minority report published, from C. L. Sholes, of the Committee on Expiration and Reenactment of Laws, to whom were referred sundry pet.i.tions praying that steps might be taken to confer upon women the right of suffrage.
In 1857, there was another favorable minority report by Judge David Noggle, and J. T. Mills. It has been twice considered by the legislatures of 1868-69, and 1880-81, failing each time by a small majority. A const.i.tutional amendment is supposed by some to be necessary to effect this needed reform, but the legislature is competent to pa.s.s a bill declaring women possessed of the right to vote, without any const.i.tutional amendment. The legislature of New York all through the century has extended the right of suffrage to certain cla.s.ses and deprived others of its exercise, without changing the const.i.tution. The power of the legislature which represents the people is anterior to the const.i.tution, as the people through their representatives make the const.i.tution.
The women, both German and American, awoke to action and organized a local suffrage society at Janesville in 1868. _The Revolution_ said:
From the report of a recent convention held in Janesville, we find the leading men and women of that city have formed an Impartial Suffrage organization, and are resolved to make all their citizens equal before the law. Able addresses were made by the Rev. S. Farrington, Rev. Sumner Ellis, and a stirring appeal issued to the people of the State, signed by Hon. J. T. Dow, G. B. Hickox, Mrs. J. H. Stillman, Joseph Baker and Mrs. F. Harris Reed. Mrs. Paulina J. Roberts of Racine, a practical farmer in a very large sense, delivered an address which was justly complimented.
The first popular convention held in Wisconsin, with national speakers, convened in Milwaukee February 15, 16, 1869.[422] The bill then pending in the legislature to submit the question of woman suffrage to the electors of the State added interest to this occasion. Parker Pillsbury, in _The Revolution_, said:
The Wisconsin convention seems to have been quite equal in all respects to its predecessors at Chicago and other places. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony were accompanied to Milwaukee by Mrs. Livermore, a new Western star of ”bright particular effulgence,” and the proceedings throughout were characterized by argument, eloquence and interest beyond anything of the kind ever witnessed there before. The Milwaukee papers teem with accounts of it, most of them of very friendly tone and spirit, even if opposed to the objects under consideration. The _Evening Wisconsin_ said, if any one supposed for an instant that the call for a Woman's Suffrage convention would draw out only that cla.s.s known as strong-minded, such a one was never more deceived in his or her life. At the opening of the convention[423]
yesterday, the City Hall was crowded with as highly intelligent an audience of ladies and gentlemen as ever gathered there before.
Mrs. Stanton spoke at the evening session to an immense audience on the following resolutions:
_Resolved_, That a man's government is worse than a white man's government, because in proportion as you increase the rulers you make the condition of the ostracised more hopeless and degraded.
_Resolved_, That, as the cry of a ”white man's government”
created an antagonism between the Irish and the negro, culminating in the New York riots of '63, so the Republican cry of ”Manhood Suffrage” creates an antagonism between the black man and all women, and will culminate in fearful outrages on womanhood, especially in the Southern States.
_Resolved_, That by the establishment of an aristocracy of s.e.x in the District of Columbia, by the introduction of the word ”male” into the Federal Const.i.tution in Article 14, Section 2, and by the proposition now pending to enforce manhood suffrage in all the States of the Union, the Republican party has been guilty of three excessively arbitrary acts, three retrogressive steps in legislation, alike invidious and insulting to woman, and suicidal to the nation.