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situdes than any other State, but she secured at last social order, justice in her courts and a somewhat liberal constitution, as far as the personal and property rights of the "white male citizen" were concerned. By its provisions—

All legal distinctions between individuals on religious grounds are prohibited; the utmost freedom of assembling, of speech and of the press is allowed, subject only to restraint for abuse; there is no imprisonment for debt, except where fraud can be proved; slavery and involuntary servitude, except for crime, are prohibited; wives are secured in their separate rights of property; the exemption of a part of the homestead and other property of heads of families from forced sale is recognized.

So far so good; but while the constitution limits the franchise to every "white male citizen" over twenty-one, who has been a resident of the State six months, and thus makes outlaws and pariahs of all the noble women who endured the hardships of the journey by land or by sea to that country in the early days, who helped to make it all that it is, that instrument cannot be said to secure justice, equality and liberty to all its citizens. The position in the constitution and laws of that vast territory, of the real woman who shares the every-day trials and hardships of her sires and sons inspires no corresponding admiration and respect, with the ideal one who gilds and glorifies the great seal of the State.

For the main facts of this chapter we are indebted to Elizabeth T. Schenck.^[1] She says:

Out of the stirring scenes and tragical events characterizing the early days of California one can well understand that there came of necessity many brave and adventurous argonauts and many women of superior mental force, from among whom in after years the woman suffrage cause might receive most devoted adherents. For nearly a score of years after the great incursion of gold-seekers into this newly-acquired State no word was uttered by tongue or pen demanding political equality for women—none at least which reached the public ear. There were no preceding causes, as in the older States, to stimulate the discussion of the question, and even that mental amazon, Eliza W. Farnham who was one of the distinguished pioneers of California, gathered her inspiration from

———

1. Having spent several days with Mrs. Schenck, in her cozy, artistic home surrounded with a hedge of brilliant geraniums, I can readily testify to the many virtues and attractions her large circle of friends has always accorded her. From all I had heard I was prepared to find Mrs. Schenck a woman of remarkable cultivation and research, and I was not disappointed. Refined, honorable in her feeling, clear in her judgments of men and measures, just and upright In all her words and actions, she was indeed the fitting leader for the uprising of women on the Pacific Slope. The preparation of this chapter occupied the last year of her life, her one wish to live was to complete the task, but when her failing powers made that impossible she charged her friend Mrs. Manning, with whom she resided, to take up the work that had fallen from her hands and make a fair record of all that had been done and said, by her noble coadjutors, who had labored so faithfully to inaugurate the greatest reform of the century. —[E. C. S.