Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/348

It is to be remarked that the clause on which the court determined its judgment was of no practical consequence, since the money devised had already been paid to Wendell Phillips, who had disposed of it as the bequest required, and he had given his receipt to the testator for the amount.

Even the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has begun to understand the trend of the woman's rights movement, and has rendered its first favorable decision, in the famous Eddy-will case. Wendell Phillips told me that he drew up this will, and that its provisions were so carefully worded that even the Supreme Court could find no flaw in it. It is in his own handwriting, and Chandler R. Ransom was the executor. Eliza F. Eddy was the daughter of Francis Jackson, and just before her death in 1882, desiring to help the suffrage cause and thus carry out her father's intentions, she made her will in which she bequeathed $40,000 for this purpose. The clause relating to this bequest is as follows:

Whatever is left, after paying the above legacies, I direct shall be divided into equal portions. One of said portions I leave to Susan B. Anthony of Rochester. N. Y.; and the other portion I leave to Lucy Stone, wife of Henry B. Blackwell, as her own absolute separate property, free from any control by him. I request said Susan and Lucy to use said fund thus given to further what is called the "Woman's Rights' Cause"; but neither of them is under any legal responsibility to any one or any court to do so.

Her will was filed and the Probate Court declared its validity. This decision was appealed from for several unimportant reasons by relatives of Mrs. Eddy, Francis W. and Jerome A. Bacon, minors; and the case was carried to the Supreme Judicial Court. After many delays it was finally decided in favor of the validity of the will, March, 1885, R. M. Morse, jr., and S. J. Elder for the plaintiff, and B. F. Butler and F. L. Washburn for the defendants. The court's final decision, rendered by Hon. Charles Devens, is as follows:

Albert F, Bacon and others, executors and others vs. Chandler R. Ransom, executor, and others.

Suffolk. March 18, 19, 1885. W. Allen, Colburn and Holmes, Js., absent.

After a bequest in trust to A, and B., to be by them expended in securing the passage of laws granting women the right to vote, had been decreed void as not being a charity, a daughter of the testator bequeathed the residue of her estate (being about the amount she had received from her father's estate) to A. and B. "as their absolute property"; and added: "I request said A. and B. to use said fund thus given to further what is called the Woman's Rights Cause. But neither of them is under any legal responsibility to any one or any court to do so." Held, that the bequest was valid, and did not create a trust.