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diff --git a/9449-8.txt b/9449-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..61a7e3a --- /dev/null +++ b/9449-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2343 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 7. +by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 7. + +Author: Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley) + +Release Date: August 10, 2004 [EBook #9449] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMANTHA AMONG THE BRETHREN, *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + +SAMANTHA + +AMONG THE BRETHREN. + +By + +"Josiah Allen's Wife" + +(Marietta Holley) + + +Part 7 + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +He wuz jest a-countin' out his money prior to puttin' it away in his tin +box, and I laid the subject before him strong and eloquent, jest the +wants and needs of the meetin' house, and jest how hard we female +sisters wuz a-workin', and jest how much we needed some money to buy our +ingregiencies with for the fair. + +He set still, a-countin' out his money, but I know he heard me. There +wuz four fifty dollar bills, a ten, and a five, and I felt that at the +very least calculation he would hand me out the ten or the five, and +mebby both on 'em. + +But he laid 'em careful in the box, and then pulled out his old +pocket-book out of his pocket, and handed me a ten cent piece. + +[Illustration: "HANDED ME A TEN CENT PIECE."] + +I wuz mad. And I hain't a-goin' to deny that we had some words. Or at +least I said some words to him, and gin him a middlin' clear idee of +how I felt on the subject. + +Why, the colt wuz more mine than his in the first place, and I didn't +want a cent of money for myself, but only wanted it for the good of the +Methodist meetin' house, which he ort to be full as interested in as I +wuz. + +Yes, I gin him a pretty lucid idee of what my feelin's wuz on the +subject--and spozed mebby I had convinced him. I wuz a-standin' with my +back to him, a-ironin' a shirt for him, when I finished up my piece +of mind. And thought more'n as likely as not he'd break down and be +repentent, and hand me out a ten dollar bill. + +But no, he spoke out as pert and cheerful as anything and sez he: + +"Samantha, I don't think it is necessary for Christians to give such a +awful sight. Jest look at the widder's mit." + +I turned right round and looked at him, holdin' my flat-iron in my right +hand, and sez I: + +"What do you mean, Josiah Allen? What are you talkin' about?" + +[Illustration: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, JOSIAH ALLEN? WHAT ARE YOU TALKIN' ABOUT?"] + +"Why the widder's mit that is mentioned in Scripter, and is talked about +so much by Christians to this day. Most probable it wuz a odd one, I +dare persume to say she had lost the mate to it. It specilly mentions +that there wuzn't but one on 'em. And jest see how much that is talked +over, and praised up clear down the ages, to this day. It couldn't have +been worth more'n five cents, if it wuz worth that." + +"How do you spell mit, Josiah Allen?" sez I. + +"Why m-i-t-e, mit." + +"I should think," sez I, "that that spells mite." + +"Oh well, when you are a-readin' the Bible, all the best commentaters +agree that you must use your own judgment. Mite! What sense is there in +that? Widder's mite! There hain't any sense in it, not a mite." + +And Josiah kinder snickered here, as if he had made a dretful cute +remark, bringin' the "mite" in in that way. But I didn't snicker, no, +there wuzn't a shadow, or trace of anything to be heard in my linement, +but solemn and bitter earnest. And I set the flat-iron down on the +stove, solemn, and took up another, solemn, and went to ironin' on his +shirt collar agin with solemnety and deep earnest. "No," Josiah Allen +continued, "there hain't no sense in that--but mit! there you have +sense. All wimmen wear mits; they love 'em. She most probable had a good +pair, and lost one on 'em, and then give the other to the church. I tell +you it takes men to translate the Bible, they have such a realizin' +sense of the weaknesses of wimmen, and how necessary it is to translate +it in such a way as to show up them weaknesses, and quell her down, and +make her know her place, make her know that man is her superior in every +way, and it is her duty as well as privilege to look up to him." + +And Josiah Allen crossed his left leg over his right one, as haughty +and over bearin' a-crossin' as I ever see in my life, and looked up +haughtily at the stove-pipe hole in the ceilin', and resoomed, + +"But, as I wuz sayin' about her mit, the widder's, you know. That is +jest my idee of givin', equinomical, savin', jest as it should be." + +"Yes," sez I, in a very dry axent, most as dry as my flat-iron, and that +wuz fairly hissin' hot. "She most probable had some man to advise her, +and to tell her what use the mit would be to support a big meetin' +house." Oh, how dry my axent wuz. It wuz the very dryest, and most irony +one I keep by me--and I keep dretful ironikle ones to use in cases of +necessity. + +"Most probable," sez Josiah, "most probable she did." He thought I wuz +praisin' men up, and he acted tickled most to death. + +"Yes, some man without any doubt, advised her, told her that some other +widder would lose one of hern, and give hers to the meetin' house, jest +the mate to hern. That is the way I look at it," sez he "and I mean to +mention that view of mine on this subject the very next time they take +up a subscription in the meetin' house and call on me." + +But I turned and faced him then with the hot flat-iron in my hand, and +burnin' indignation in my eys, and sez I: + +"If you mention that, Josiah Allen, in the meetin' house, or to any +livin' soul on earth, I'll part with you." And I would, if it wuz the +last move I ever made. + +But I gin up from that minute the idea of gettin' anything out of Josiah +Allen for the fair. But I had some money of my own that I had got by +sellin' three pounds of geese feathers and a bushel of dried apples, +every feather picked by me, and every quarter of apple pared and peeled +and strung and dried by me. It all come to upwerds of seven dollars, and +I took every cent of it the next day out of my under bureau draw and +carried it to the meetin' house and gin it to the treasurer, and told +'em, at the request of the hull on 'em, jest how I got the money. + +And so the hull of the female sisters did, as they handed in their +money, told jest how they come by it. + +Sister Moss had seated three pairs of children's trouses for young Miss +Gowdy, her children are very hard on their trouses (slidin' down the +banesters and such). And young Miss Gowdy is onexperienced yet in +mendin', so the patches won't show. And Sister Moss had got forty-seven +cents for the job, and brung it all, every cent of it, with the +exception of three cents she kep out to buy peppermint drops with. She +has the colic fearful, and peppermint sometimes quells it. + +Young Miss Gowdy wuz kep at home by some new, important business +(twins). But she sent thirty-two cents, every cent of money she could +rake and scrape, and that she had scrimped out of the money her husband +had gin her for a woosted dress. She had sot her heart on havin' a +ruffle round the bottom (he didn't give her enough for a overshirt), +but she concluded to make it plain, and sent the ruffle money. + +And young Sister Serena Nott had picked geese for her sister, who +married a farmer up in Zoar. She had picked ten geese at two cents +apiece, and Serena that tender-hearted that it wuz like pickin' the +feathers offen her own back. + +[Illustration: "SHE HAD PICKED TEN GEESE AT TWO CENTS APIECE."] + +And then she is very timid, and skairt easy, and she owned up that while +the pickin' of the geese almost broke her heart, the pickin' of the +ganders almost skairt her to death. They wuz very high headed and +warlike, and though she put a stockin' over their heads, they would lift +'em right up, stockin' and all, and hiss, and act, and she said she +picked 'em at what seemed to her to be at the resk of her life. + +But she loved the meetin' house, so she grin and bore it, as the sayin' +is, and she brung the hull of her hard earned money, and handed it over +to the treasurer, and everybody that is at all educated knows that twice +ten is twenty. She brung twenty cents. + +Sister Grimshaw had, and she owned it right out and out, got four +dollars and fifty-three cents by sellin' butter on the sly. She had took +it out of the butter tub when Brother Grimshaw's back wuz turned, and +sold it to the neighbors for money at odd times through the year, and +besides gettin' her a dress cap (for which she wuz fairly sufferin'), +she gin the hull to the meetin' house. + +There wuz quite dubersome looks all round the room when she handed in +the money and went right out, for she had a errent to the store. + +And Sister Gowdy spoke up and said she didn't exactly like to use money +got in that way. + +But Sister Lanfear sprunted up, and brung Jacob right into the argument, +and the Isrealites who borrowed jewelry of the Egyptians, and then she +brung up other old Bible characters, and held 'em up before us. + +But still we some on us felt dubersome. And then another sister spoke up +and said the hull property belonged to Sister Grimshaw, every mite of +it, for he wuzn't worth a cent when he married her--she wuz the widder +Bettenger, and had a fine property. And Grimshaw hadn't begun to earn +what he had spent sense (he drinks). So, sez she, it all belongs to +Sister Grimshaw, by right. + +Then the sisters all begin to look less dubersome. But I sez: + +"Why don't she come out openly and take the money she wants for her own +use, and for church work, and charity?" + +"Because he is so hard with her," sez Sister Lanfear, "and tears round +so, and cusses, and commits so much wickedness. He is willin' she should +dress well--wants her to--and live well. But he don't want her to spend +a cent on the meetin' house. He is a atheist, and he hain't willin' she +should help on the Cause of religeon. And if he knows of her givin' +any to the Cause, he makes the awfulest fuss, scolds, and swears, and +threatens her, so's she has been made sick by it, time and agin." + +"Wall," sez I, "what business is it to him what she does with her own +money and her own property?" + +I said this out full and square. But I confess that I did feel a little +dubersome in my own mind. I felt that she ort to have took it more +openly. + +And Sister Grimshaw's sister Amelia, who lives with her (onmarried and +older than Sister Grimshaw, though it hain't spozed to be the case, for +she has hopes yet, and her age is kep). She had been and contoggled +three days and a half for Miss Elder Minkley, and got fifty cents a day +for contogglin'. + +She had fixed over the waists of two old dresses, and contoggled a +old dress skirt so's it looked most as well as new. Amelia is a good +contoggler and a good Christian. And I shouldn't be surprised any day to +see her snatched away by some widower or bachelder of proper age. She +would be willin', so it is spozed. + +Wall, Sister Henn kinder relented at the last, and brung two pairs of +fowls, all picked, and tied up by their legs. And we thought it wuz +kinder funny and providential that one Henn should bring four more +of'em. + +But we wuz tickled, for we knew we could sell 'em to the grocer man at +Jonesville for upwerds of a dollar bill. + +[Illustration: "SUBMIT TEWKSBURY DID BRING THAT PLATE."] + +And Submit Tewksbury, what should that good little creeter bring, and we +couldn't any of us hardly believe our eyes at first, and think she could +part with it, but she did bring _that plate_. That pink edged, chiny +plate, with gilt sprigs, that she had used as a memorial of Samuel +Danker for so many years. Sot it up on the supper table and wept in +front of it. + +Wall, she knew old china like that would bring a fancy price, and she +hadn't a cent of money she could bring, and she wanted to do her full +part towerds helpin' the meetin' house along--so she tore up her +memorial, a-weepin' on it for hours, so we spozed, and offered it up, a +burnt chiny offerin' to the Lord. + +Wall, I am safe to say, that nothin' that had took place that day had +begun to affect us like that. + +To see that good little creeter lookin' pale and considerble wan, hand +in that plate and never groan over it, nor nothin', not out loud she +didn't, but we spozed she kep up a silent groanin' inside of her, for we +all knew the feelin' she felt for the plate. + +It affected all on us fearfully. + +But the treasurer took it, and thanked her almost warmly, and Submit +merely sez, when she wuz thanked: "Oh, you are entirely welcome to it, +and I hope it will fetch a good price, so's to help the cause along." + +And then she tried to smile a little mite. But I declare that smile wuz +more pitiful than tears would have been. + +Everybody has seen smiles that seemed made up, more than half, of unshed +tears, and withered hopes, and disappointed dreams, etc., etc. + +Submit's smile wuz of that variety, one of the very curiusest of 'em, +too. Wall, she gin, I guess, about two of 'em, and then she went and sot +down. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +And now I am goin' to relate the very singulerist thing that ever +happened in Jonesville, or the world--although it is eppisodin' to tell +on it now, and also a-gettin' ahead of my story, and hitchin', as you +may say, my cart in front of my horse. But it has got to be told and I +don't know but I may as well tell it now as any time. + +Mebby you won't believe it. I don't know as I should myself, if it wuz +told to me, that is, if it come through two or three. But any way it is +the livin' truth. + +That very night as Submit Tewksbury sat alone at her supper table, +a-lookin' at that vacent spot on the table-cloth opposite to her, where +the plate laid for Samuel Danher had set for over twenty years, she +heard a knock at the door, and she got up hasty and wiped away her tears +and opened the door. A man stood there in the cold a-lookin' into the +warm cosy little room. He didn't say nothin', he acted strange. He gin +Submit a look that pierced clear to her heart (so they say). A look +that had in it the crystallized love and longin' of twenty years of +faithfulness and heart hunger and homesickness. It wuz a strange look. + +Submit's heart begun to flutter, and her face grew red and then white, +and she sez in a little fine tremblin' voice, + +"Who be you?" + +And he sez, + +"I am Samuel Danker." + +And then they say she fainted dead away, and fell over the rockin' +chair, he not bein' near enough to ketch her. + +And he brung her to on a burnt feather that fell out of the chair +cushion when she fell. There wuz a small hole in it, so they say, and +the feather oozed out. + +I don't tell this for truth, I only say that _they say_ thus and so. + +[Illustration: "I AM SAMUEL DANKER."] + +But as to Samuel's return, that I can swear to, and so can Josiah. And +that they wuz married that very night of his return, that too can be +swore to. A old minister who lived next door to Submit--superanuated, +but life enough in him to marry 'em safe and sound, a-performin' the +ceremony. + +It made a great stir in Jonesville, almost enormus. + +But they wuz married safe enough, and happy as two gambolin' lambs, so +they say. Any way Submit looks ten years younger than she did, and I +don't know but more. I don't know but she looks eleven or twelve years +younger, and Samuel, why they say it is a perfect sight to see how happy +he looks, and how he has renewed his age. + +The hull affair wuz very pleasin' to the Jonesvillians. Why there wuzn't +more'n one or two villians but what wuz fairly delighted by it, and they +wuz spozed to be envius. + +And I drew severel morals from it, and drew 'em quite a good ways too, +over both religous and seckuler grounds. + +One of the seekuler ones wuz drawed from her not settin' the table for +him that night, for the first time for twenty years, givin' away the +plate, and settin' on (with tears) only a stun chiny one for herself. +How true it is that if a female woman keeps dressed up slick, piles of +extra good cookin' on hand, and her house oncommon clean, and she sets +down in a rockin' chair, lookin' down the road for company. + +[Illustration: "THEY DON'T COME!"] _They don't come!_ + +But let her on a cold mornin' leave her dishes onwashed, and her floors +onswept, and put on her husband's old coat over her meanest dress, and +go out (at his urgent request) to help him pick up apples before the +frost spiles 'em. She a-layin' out to cook up some vittles to put on to +her empty shelves when she goes into the house, she not a-dreamin' of +company at that time of day. + +_They come!_ + +Another moral and a more religeus one. When folks set alone sheddin' +tears on their empty hands, that seem to 'em to be emptied of all +hope and happiness forever. Like es not some Divine Compensation is +a-standin' right on the door steps, ready to enter in and dwell with +'em. + +Also that when Submit Tewksbury thought she had gin away for conscience' +sake, her dearest treasure, she had a dearer one gin to her--Samuel +Danker by name. + +[Illustration: "THEY COME."] + +Also I drew other ones of various sizes, needless to recapitulate, for +time is hastenin', and I have eppisoded too fur, and to resoom, and take +up agin on my finger the thread of my discourse, that I dropped in the +Methodist meetin' house at Jonesville, in front of the treasurer. + +Wall, Submit brought the plate. + +Sister Nash brought twenty-three cents all in pennys, tied up in the +corner of a old handkercif. She is dretful poor, but she had picked up +these here and there doin' little jobs for folks. + +And we hadn't hardly the heart to take 'em, nor the heart to refuse +takin' 'em, she wuz so set on givin' 'em. And it wuz jest so with Mahala +Crane, Joe Cranes'es widder. + +She, too, is poor, but a Christian, if there ever wuz one. She had made +five pair of overhawls for the clothin' store in Loontown, for which she +had received the princely revenue of fifty cents. + +She handed the money over to the treasurer, and we wuz all on us +extremely worked upon and wrought up to see her do it, for she did it +with such a cheerful air. And her poor old calico dress she had on wuz +so thin and wore out, and her dingy alpaca shawl wuz thin to mendin', +and all darned in spots. We all felt that Mahala had ort to took the +money to get her a new dress. + +[Illustration: "SISTER ARVILLY LANFRAR, CANVASSIN' FOR A BOOK."] + +But we dasted none on us to say so to her. I wouldn't have been the one to +tell her that for a dollar bill, she seemed to be so happy a-givin' her +part towerds the fair, and for the good of the meetin' house she loved. + +Wall, Sister Meachim had earned two dollars above her wages--she is a +millinner by perswasion, and works at a millinner's shop in Jonesville. +She had earned the two dollars by stayin' and workin' nights after the +day's work wuz done. + +And Sister Arvilly Lanfear had earned three dollars and twenty-eight +cents by canvassin' for a book. The name of the book wuz: "The Wild, +Wicked, and Warlike Deeds of Man." + +And Arvilly said she had took solid comfort a-sellin' it, though she +had to wade through snow and slush half way up to her knees some of the +time, a-trailin' round from house to house a-takin' orders fer it. She +said she loved to sell a book that wuz full of truth from the front page +to the back bindin'. + +As for me I wouldn't gin a cent for the book, and I remember we had +some words when she come to our house with it. I told her plain that I +wouldn't buy no book that belittled my companion, or tried to--sez I, +"Arvilly, men are _jest_ as good as wimmen and no better, not a mite +better." + +And Arvilly didn't like it, but I made it up to her in other ways. I +gin her some lamb's wool yarn for a pair of stockin's most immegictly +afterwerds, and a half bushel of but'nuts. She is dretful fond of +but'nuts. + +[Illustration: "OLD MISS BALCH."] + +Wall, Sister Shelmadine had sold ten pounds of maple sugar, and brought +the worth on it. + +And Sister Henzy brung four dollars and a half, her husband had gin her +for another purpose, but she took it for this, and thought there wuzn't +no harm in it, as she laid out to go without the four dollars and a +halt's worth. It was fine shoes he had gin the money for, and she +calculated to make the old ones do. + +And Sister Henzy's mother, old Miss Balch, she is eighty-three years +old, and has inflamatery rheumatiz in her hands, which makes 'em all +swelled up and painful. But Sister Henzy said her mother had knit three +pairs of fringed mittens (the hardest work for her hands she could have +laid holt of, and which must have hurt her fearful). But Miss Henzy said +a neighbor had offered her five dollars fer the three pairs, and so she +felt it wuz her duty to knit 'em, to help the fair along. She is a very +strong Methodist, and loved to forwerd the interests of Zion. + +She wuz goin' to give every cent of the money to the meetin' house, so +Sister Henzy said, all but ten cents, that she _had_ to have to get +Pond's Extract with, to bathe her hands. They wuz in a fearful state. We +all felt bad for old Miss Balch, and I don't believe there wuz a woman +there but what gin her some different receipt fer helpin' her hands, +besides sympathy, lots and lots of it, and pity. + +Wall, Sister Sypher'ses husband is clost, very clost with her. She don't +have anythin' to give, only her labor, as well off as they be. And now +he wuz so wrapped up in that buzz saw mill business that she wouldn't +have dasted to approach him any way, that is, to ask him for a cent. + +Wall, what should that good little creeter do but gin all the money she +had earned and saved durin' the past year or two, and had laid by for +emergincies or bunnets. + +She had got over two dollars and seventy-five cents, which she handed +right over to the treasurer of the fair to get materials for fancy work. +When they wuz got she proposed to knit three pairs of men's socks out +of zephyr woosted, and she said she was goin' to try to pick enough +strawberrys to buy a pair of the socks for Deacon Sypher. She said it +would be a comfort for her to do it, for they would be so soft for the +Deacon's feet. + +Wall, Sister Gowdy wuz the last one to gin in dress gin to her by her +uncle out to the Ohio. It wuz gin her to mourn for her mother-in-law in. + +And what should that good, willin' creeter do but bring that dress and +gin it to the fair to sell. + +We hated to take it, we hated to like dogs, for we knew Sister Gowdy +needed it. + +But she would make us take it; she said "if her Mother Gowdy wuz alive, +she would say to her, + +"Sarah Ann, I'd ruther not be mourned for in bombazeen than to have the +dear old meetin' house in Jonesville go to destruction. Sell the dress +and mourn fer me in a black calico." + +_That_ Sister Gowdy said would be, she knew, what Mother Gowdy would say +to her if she wuz alive. + +And we couldn't dispute Sarah Ann, for we all knew that old Miss Gowdy +worked for the meetin' house as long as she could work for anything. +She loved the Methodist meetin' house better than she loved husband or +children, though she wuz a good wife and mother. She died with cramps, +and her last request wuz to have this hymn sung to her funeral: + + [Illustration: "I LOVE THY KINGDOM, LORD."] + + "I love thy kingdom, Lord, + The house of thine abode, + The church our dear Redeemer bought + With His most precious blood." + +The quire all loved Mother Gowdy, and sung it accordin' to her wishes, +and broke down, I well remember, at the third verse-- + + "For her my tears shall fall, + For her my prayers ascend, + For her my toil and life be given, + Till life and toil shall end." + +The quire broke down, and the minister himself shed tears to think how +she had carried out her belief all her life, and died with the thought +of the church she loved on her heart and its name on her lips. + +Wall, the dress would sell at the least calculation for eight dollars; +the storekeeper had offered that, but Sarah Ann hoped it would bring ten +to the fair. + +It wuz a cross to Sarah Ann, so we could see, for she had loved Mother +Gowdy dretful well, and loved the uncle who had gin it to her, and she +hadn't a nice black dress to her back. But she said she hadn't lived +with Mother Gowdy twenty years for nothin', and see how she would always +sacrifice anything and everything but principle for the good of the +meetin' house. + +Sister Gowdy is a good-hearted woman, and we all on us honored her for +this act of hern, though we felt it wuz almost too much for her to do +it. + +Wall, Sister Gowdy wuz the last one to gin in her testimony, and havin' +got through relatin' our experiences we proceeded to business and +paperin'. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Sister Sylvester Bobbet and I had been voted on es the ones best +qualified to lead off in the arjeous and hazerdous enterprize. + +And though we deeply felt the honor they wuz a-heapin' on to us, yet +es it hes been, time and agin, in other high places in the land, if it +hadn't been fer duty that wuz a-grippin' holt of us, we would gladly +have shirked out of it and gin the honor to some humble but worthy +constituent. + +Fer the lengths of paper wuz extremely long, the ceilin' fearfully high, +and oh! how lofty and tottlin' the barells looked to us. And we both on +us, Sister Sylvester Bobbet and I, had giddy and dizzy spells right on +the ground, let alone bein' perched up on barells, a-liftin' our arms up +fur, fur beyond the strength of their sockets. + +[Illustration: "WE FELT NERVED UP TO DO OUR BEST."] + +But duty wuz a-callin' us, and the other wimmen also, and it wuzn't for +me, nor Sister Sylvester Bobbet to wave her nor them off, or shirk out +of hazerdous and dangerous jobs when the good of the Methodist Meetin' +House wuz at the Bay. + +No, with as lofty looks as I ever see in my life (I couldn't see my own, +but I felt 'em), and with as resolute and martyrous feelin's as ever +animated two wimmen's breasts, Sister Sylvester Bobbet and I grasped +holt of the length of paper, one on each end on it, Sister Arvilly +Lanfear and Miss Henzy a-holdin' it up in the middle like Aaron and Hur +a-holdin' up Moses'ses arms. We advanced and boldly mounted up onto our +two barells, Miss Gowdy and Sister Sypher a-holdin' two chairs stiddy +for us to mount up on. + +Every eye in the meetin' house wuz on us. We felt nerved up to do our +best, even if we perished in so doin', and I didn't know some of the +time but we would fall at our two posts. The job wuz so much more +wearin' and awful than we had foreboded, and we had foreboded about it +day and night for weeks and weeks, every one on us. + +The extreme hite of the ceilin'; the slipperyness and fragility of the +lengths of paper; the fearful hite and tottlin'ness of the barells; the +dizzeness that swept over us at times, in spite of our marble efforts to +be calm. The dretful achin' and strainin' of our armpits, that bid fair +to loosen 'em from their four sockets. The tremenjous responsibility +that laid onto us to get the paper on smooth and onwrinkled. + +It wuz, takin' it altogether, the most fearful and wearisome hour of my +hull life. + +Every female in the room held her breath in deathless anxiety (about +thirty breaths). And every eye in the room wuz on us (about fifty-nine +eyes--Miss Shelmadine hain't got but one workin' eye, the other is +glass, though it hain't known, and must be kep). + +Wall, it wuz a-goin' on smooth and onwrinkled--smiles broke out on every +face, about thirty smiles--a half a minute more and it would be done, +and done well. When at that tryin' and decisive moment when the fate of +our meetin' house wuz, as you may say, at the stake, we heard the sound +of hurryin' feet, and the door suddenly opened, and in walked Josiah +Allen, Deacon Sypher, and Deacon Henzy followed by what seemed to me at +the time to be the hull male part of the meetin' house. + +But we found out afterwerds that there wuz a few men in the meetin' +house that thought wimmen ort to set; they argued that when wimmen had +been standin' so long they out to set down; they wuz good dispositioned. +But as I sez at the time, it looked to us as if every male Methodist in +the land wuz there and present. + +They wuz in great spirits, and their means wuz triumphant and satisfied. + +They had jest got the last news from the Conference in New York village, +and had come down in a body to disseminate it to us. + +They said the Methodist Conference had decided that the seven wimmen +that had been stood up there in New York for the last week, couldn't +set, that they wuz too weak and fraguile to set on the Conference. + +And then the hull crowd of men, with smiles and haughty linements, beset +Josiah to read it out to us. + +So Josiah Allen, with his face nearly wreathed with a smile, a blissful +smile, but as high headed a one as I ever see, read it all out to us. +But he should have to hurry, he said, for he had got to carry the great +and triumphant news all round, up as fur as Zoar, if he had time. + +[Illustration: "THE METHODIST CONFERENCE HAD DECIDED THAT WIMMEN WUZ +TOO WEAK TO SET."] + +And so he read it out to us, and as we see that that +breadth wuz spilte, we stopped our work for a minute and heard it. + +And after he had finished it, they all said it wuz a masterly dockument, +the decision wuz a noble one, and it wuz jest what they had always said. +They said they had always known that wimmen wuz too weak, her frame wuz +too tender, she was onfitted by Nater, in mind and in body to contend +with such hardship. And they all agreed that it would be puttin' the men +in a bad place, and takin' a good deal offen their dignity, if the fair +sex had been allowed by them to take such hardships onto 'em. And they +sez, some on 'em, "Why! what are men in the Methodist meetin' house for, +if it hain't to guard the more weaker sect, and keep cares offen 'em?" + +And one or two on 'em mentioned the words, "cooin' doves" and "sweet +tender flowerets," as is the way of men at such times. But they wuz in +too big a hurry to spread themselves (as you may say) in this direction. +They had to hurry off to tell the great news to other places in +Jonesville and up as fer as Loontown and Zoar. + +But Sister Arvilly Lanfear, who happened to be a-standin' in the door +as they went off, she said she heard 'em out as fer as the gate +a-congratilatin' themselves and the Methodist Meetin' House and the +nation on the decesion, for, sez they, + +"Them angels hain't strong enough to set, and I've known it all the +time." + +And Sister Sylvester Gowdy sez to me, a-rubbin' herachin' armpits-- + +"If they are as beet out as we be they'd be glad to set down on +anything--a Conference or anything else." + +And I sez, a-wipin' the presperatin of hard labor from my forwerd, + +"For the land's sake! Yes! I should think so." + +And then with giddy heads and strainin' armpits we tackled the meetin' +house agin. + +[Illustration: The End] + + + + +PUBLISHERS' APPENDIX. + + +In view of the frequent reference, in this work, to the discussion in +and preceding the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church +of 1888, in regard to the admission of women delegates, the publishers +have deemed it desirable to append the six following addresses delivered +on the floor of the Conference during the progress of that discussion. + +The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church is the highest +legislative body of that denomination. It is composed of delegates, both +ministerial and lay, the former being elected by the Annual Conferences, +and the latter by Lay Electoral Conferences. The sessions of the General +Conference are held quadrennially. + +Prior to the session held in May, 1888, in New York City, women +delegates were elected, one each, by the four following Lay Electoral +Conferences--namely, The Kansas Conference, The Minnesota Conference, +The Pittsburgh Conference, and The Rock River Conference. Protest was +made against the admission of these delegates on the ground that the +admission of women delegates was not in accord with the constitutional +provisions of the Church, embodied in what are termed the Restrictive +Rules. A special Committee on the Eligibility of Women to Membership in +the General Conference was appointed, consisting of seventeen members, +to whom the protest was referred. On May 3d the Committee reported +adversely to the admission of the four women delegates, the report +alleging "that under the Constitution and laws of the Church as they now +are, women are not eligible as lay delegates in the General Conference." +From the discussion following this report, and lasting several days, the +following six addresses, three in favor of and three against the +admission of the women delegates, are selected and presented, with a few +verbal corrections, as published in the official journal of the +Conference. + + + + +ADDRESS OF REV. DR. THEODORE L. FLOOD. + +I am in accord, in the main, with Dr. Potts and Dr. Brush in what they +have said on this question, unless it may be where my friend who last +spoke said that these ladies, these elected delegates to this body, +ought to be admitted. My judgment and my conscience before the +Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Restrictive Rules +is that these women elected by these Electoral Conferences are in this +General Conference. + +Their names may not have been called when the roll was called, and yet +it was distinctly stated by the Bishop presiding that morning that they +would be called, and the challenges presented with their names; and +afterward demanded it, the names of these delegates who were not +enrolled with the others were called, and the protests were read. Their +names have been called as members of this body, and they are simply here +as "challenged" members. From that standpoint this question must be +discussed, and any disposition of this case under the circumstances must +be in this direction. These women delegates must be put out of this +General Conference if they are not granted the rights and privileges +of members here. It is not a question of "admitting" them. Before this +report, before the bar of history, we stand, and will be called upon to +vote and act, and millions of people will hold us responsible, and I +dare say that our votes will be recorded as to whether they shall be +"put out" or "stay in." + +Why, sir, the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church exists +for the ministry and membership of the Church. The ministry and the +membership of the Church do not exist for the government. The world was +made for man, and not man for the world. That is the fundamental idea +in the government of God, as He treats us as human beings. That is the +fundamental idea in the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, +as we are enlisted in the support of that government as ministers +and members of the Church. Now under this system of ecclesiastical +government a time came in our history when we submitted a grave question +to the membership of the Church. It was not a question simply of +petition, asking the membership to send petitions up to the General +Conference. On the contrary, it was submitting a constitutional question +not simply to the male members of the Church, for that grand and noble +man of the Methodist Church, Dr. David Sherman of the New England +Conference, moved himself to strike out the word "male" from the report +of the Committee on Lay Delegation. It came to a vote, and it was +stricken out, two to one in the vote. When that was done, then the +General Conference of our Church submitted to the membership of the +Church the question of lay delegation. But back of the question of lay +delegation was as grave a question, and that was granting the right of +suffrage to the women of the Church. The General Conference assumed +the responsibility of giving to the women the right to vote. It may be +questioned this way; it may be explained that way; but the facts +abide that the General Conference granted to the women of the Church the +right to vote on a great and important question in ecclesiastical law. +Now if you run a parallel along the line of our government--and it has +often been said that there are parallels in the government of the United +States corresponding to lines of legislation and legislative action in +the government of the Church--you will find that the right of suffrage +in the country at the ballot-box has been a gradual growth. One of the +most sacred rights that a man, an American citizen, enjoys is the right +to cast a ballot for the man or men he would have legislate for him; and +for no trivial reason can that right, when once granted to the American +citizen, be taken away from him. Go to the State of Massachusetts, and +trace the history of citizen suffrage, and you find it commenced in this +way: First, a man could vote under the government there who was a member +of the Church. Next, he could vote if he were a freeholder. A little +later on he could vote if he paid a poll-tax. In the government, and +under the legislation of our Church, first the women were granted the +right to vote on the principle of lay delegation, not on the "plan" +of lay delegation, but on the "principle" of lay delegation. That was +decided by Bishop Simpson in the New Hampshire Conference, and by Bishop +Janes afterward in one of the New York Conferences. On the principle +of lay delegation, the women of the Church were granted the right of +suffrage; presently they appeared in the Quarterly Conference, to vote +as class-leaders, stewards, and Sunday-school superintendents; and it +created a little excitement, a feverish state of feeling in the Church, +and the General Conference simply passed a resolution or a rule +interpreting that action on the part of women claiming this privilege +in the Quarterly Conference as being a "right," and it was continued. +Presently, as the right of suffrage of women passed on and grew, they +voted in the Electoral Conferences, and there was no outcry made against +it. I have yet to hear of any Bishop in the Church, or any presiding +elder, or any minister challenging the right of women to vote in +Electoral Conferences or Quarterly Conferences; and yet for sixteen +years they have been voting in these bodies; voting to send laymen here +to legislate; to send laymen to the General Conference to elect Bishops +and Editors and Book Agents and Secretaries. They come to where votes +count in making up this body; they have been voting sixteen years, and +only now, when the logical result of the right of suffrage that the +General Conference gave to women appears and confronts us by women +coming here to vote as delegates, do we rise up and protest. I believe +that it is at the wrong time that the protest comes. It should have come +when the right to vote was granted to women in the Church. It is sixteen +years too late, and as was very wisely said by Dr. Potts, the objection +comes not so much from the Constitution of the Church as from the +"constitution of the men," who challenge these women. + +Now, sir, another parallel. You take the United States Government just +after the war, when the colored people of the South, the freedmen of our +land, unable to take care of themselves, their friends, that had fought +the battles of the war, in Congress determined that they should be +protected, if no longer by bayonets and cannon, that they should +be protected by placing the ballot in their hands, and the ballot was +placed in the hands of the freedman of the South by the action of the +National Congress, Congress submitting a constitutional amendment to the +legislatures of the States; and when enough of them had voted in favor +of it, and the President had signed the bill, it became an amendment to +the Constitution of the United States, granting to the people of the +South, who had been disfranchised, the right of suffrage. + +Now, what does the right of suffrage do? It carries with it the right +to hold office. Where women have the privileges of voting on the school +question, they are granted the privilege of being school directors, +holding the office of superintendents, and the restriction on them stops +at that point under statute law. If you go a little further you will +find that when the freedmen were enfranchised, and they sent men of +their own color to the House of Representatives, did that body say +"stop!" "we protest, you cannot come in because of illegality"? No. They +were admitted on the face of their credentials because they had first +been granted the right of suffrage. When men of their color went to the +United States Senate and submitted their credentials, they were not +protested against, but they were admitted as members of the United +States Senate on the face of their credentials. And why? Because +the right of suffrage granted to the freedmen of the South under a +constitutional amendment of the nation, carried with it the right of +the men whom we fought to free, and did free, in an awful war, to hold +office in the nation. Now, sir, you must interpret the law somewhat by +the spirit of the times in which you live. That is a mistaken notion +to say that you must always go to the men that made the law to get the +interpretation of it. If that were true, would it not always be wise +for legislators to give their affidavits and place on file their +interpretation of the law they had confirmed, and placed on the statute +books? There are legal gentlemen in this body who will tell you that it +goes for very little when you come to interpret law. And yet you will +find this to be true, that a law must be interpreted somewhat by the +spirit of the time in which you live. Why, twenty years ago, when the +General Conference handed the question of lay delegation down to the +Annual Conferences, and the members of our Church, there was not a +woman practising law in the Supreme Court of the United States. Go back +through the history of jurisprudence of this country and in England, and +you will find that it had never been known that a woman practised law in +the Supreme Court of this country or England. But to-day women have been +admitted to practise law in the Supreme Court of the United States. No +amendment to the Constitution of the United States had to be adopted +in order to secure this privilege for them. But this is true, that the +judges of the Supreme Court, by a more liberal interpretation of the +Constitution of the United States, said, "Women may be officers of the +Supreme Court, and may practise law there." The same kind of a spirit, +in interpreting the Discipline and the Restrictive Rules of the +Discipline of the Church, will place these women delegates in this body +where they have been sent. The same thing is true of the Supreme Court +of Pennsylvania and in the Courts of Philadelphia. There is no way out, +as my judgment sees, and as my conscience tells me, since before the +government of God man and woman are equally responsible. There is no way +out of this dilemma for this General Conference, but to say that these +women delegates shall sit in this body, where they have been sent, and +where their names have been called. + +Why, take the missionary operations. The Woman's Missionary Society is +to-day raising more money and doing more missionary work than the Parent +Missionary Society did fifty years ago. And yet men legislate concerning +the missionary operations of women, and give them no voice directly in +this body. + +We bring up the temperance question here against license and in favor +of Prohibition, and we pass our resolutions after we have given our +discussions, and yet the Methodist Church has the honor of having in the +ranks of her membership--(Time called.) + + + + +ADDRESS OF REV. DR. JAMES M. BUCKLEY. + + +Mr. President, while the last speaker was on the floor, a modification +of a passage of Scripture occurred to me, "The enemy cometh in like +a flood, but I will lift up a standard against him." It is somewhat +peculiar that he should begin by making a statement about one of the +most honored names in American Methodism, a statement that has been +published in the papers, and that nine tenths of this body knew as well +as he did. It must have been intended as a part of his argument, and I +regard it as of as much force as anything he said after it. But in +point of fact the question does not turn upon the person, but upon the +principle. I have received an anonymous letter containing the following +among other things, "Beware how you attack the holy cause of woman. Do +you not know that obstacles to progress are rem-o-o-v-e-d out of the +way?" The signature of that letter is ingenious. I cannot tell whether +it was a man or a woman, for it reads as follows, "A Lover of your Soul +and of Woman." Now, Mr. President, the only candlestick that ought to be +removed out of its place is the candlestick that contains a candle that +does not burn the pure oil of truth. And I believe, sir, that with the +best of intentions the three speakers who have appeared have given us +three chapters in different styles of a work of fiction, and it is my +duty to undertake to show where they have slipped. The Apocrypha says, +"An eloquent man is known far and near; but a man of understanding +discerneth where he slippeth." I have no claim to eloquence; never +pretended to have any; but I have a claim to some knowledge of Methodist +history, to some ability to state my sentiments, and to be without any +fear of the results, either present or prospective. + +Now, Mr. President, you notice from my friends that if they cannot +command the judgment of the Conference they propose to say the women are +in, and defy us to put them out. I am sorry that my friend did not take +in the full significance of that. And they say that everybody who has +a certificate in form is in until he is put out. Why, they do not +discriminate between ordinary contested cases and a case where the +constitutional point is involved. If these women have a right here, +they have had it from the beginning by the Constitution. It is not a +contested case as to whether John Smith was voted for by the people who +ought to vote for him, or in the right place. Now, they talk of bringing +up documents here. I wrote to the Hon. George F. Edmunds, the most +distinguished member of the United States Senate, and simply put this +question, If a certificate of election in the Senate shows anything that +would prove the person unworthy of a seat, would he be seated pending an +investigation or not? He did not know what it referred to, and I read +it _verbatim_. I never mentioned the name of Methodist, and I read +_verbatim_ from his letter: + +"No officer of the Senate has any right to decide any such question, +and, therefore, every person admitted to a seat is admitted by, in fact, +a vote of the Senate. The ordinary course in the Senate is, when +the credentials appear to be perfectly regular, and there is no +notorious and undisputed fact or circumstance against the qualifications +and election of a senator, to admit him at once and settle the question +of his right afterward. But there have been cases in which the Senate +declined to admit a claimant holding a regular certificate upon the +ground that enough was known to the Senate to justify its declining to +receive him until an inquiry should be had. Very truly yours, + +"GEORGE F. EDMUNDS." + +Now, Mr. President, all this twaddle about the women being in is based +upon the pretence that one woman is there now. The certificate shows +that they were women, though as yet no action has been taken in regard +to them at all. If they were in, they were in with a constitutional +challenge. I champion the holy cause of women. I stand here to champion +their cause against their being introduced into this body without their +own sex having had the opportunity of expressing their opinion upon +the subject. I stand here to protect them against being connected with +movements without law or contrary to law, and those who wish to bring +them in and those who say it is the constitution of the man and +prejudice (my friend, Dr. Potts, said prejudice), they are persons, +indeed, to stand up here as, _par excellence_ the champions of women! +Is it the constitution of the men? Have you read the letter of +Mrs. Caroline Wright in the _Christian Advocate_, one of our most +distinguished American Methodist women? She does not wish to see them +here. It is the constitution of the woman in that case, and I am opposed +to their being admitted until the general sentiment of the women and the +men of our Church have an opportunity of being heard upon it. + +Now, Mr. President, note these facts.... This is not a fact, but +my opinion. I solemnly believe that there was never an hour in the +Methodist Episcopal Church when it was in so great danger as it is +to-day, not on account of the admission of these women, two of whom I +believe to be as competent to sit in judgment on this question as any +man on this floor. That is not the question, as I propose to show. I +assert freely, here and now, if the women are in under the Restrictive +Rules, no power ought to put them out. If they are not in under the +Restrictive Rules, nothing has been done since, in my judgment, bearing +upon it. I am astounded that these brethren fancy that this question +has no bearing at all on the meaning of that rule. That is a wonderful +thing. But we affirm that when the Church voted to introduce lay +delegation, it not only did not intend to introduce women, but it did +intend to fill up the whole body with men. That is what we affirm. If +we can prove it, it is a tower of help to us. If we cannot prove it, we +cannot make out our case. But our contention is, that the Church did +not undertake to put women in, and it did undertake to fill up the +capacities and relations of the body with men. Now, look at it. No man +goes to the dictionary to find the meaning of the word "layman." There +is not a man that can find out the meaning of our Restrictive Rules from +the dictionary. No living man can make out the meaning of a word in the +Restrictive Rules from Webster's dictionary. You must get it from the +history of the Church. Who is the "General Superintendent" by Webster or +Worcester? The Methodist Episcopacy is the thing that is protected by +the Restrictive Rules. The dictionary does not tell how the Chartered +Fund shall be taken care of. Now they talk about laymen. They do not +seem, I think, to understand the history of the thing. Some of them do +not appear to understand the history of the English language. Why was +the word "layman" ever introduced? Because there was a separate class of +clergy men in the world, but there was not a class of clergywomen in the +world. If there had been, there would have been a term for laywomen and +for clergywomen. And the word was invented to distinguish the laymen +from the _clergy_men. Had there been clergywomen, there would have been +laywomen. The "laity" means all the people, men, women, and children. A +woman is one of the laity, and so is every child in the country or in +the Church one of the laity. But when you speak of man acting as a unit +he is a layman, but you never say a laywoman. You say: a woman. Abraham +Lincoln said, "All these things are done and suffered, that government +of the people, for the people, and by the people should not perish +from the earth." Now, people, the dictionary says, are men, women, and +children. Did Abraham Lincoln mean that any women or children can take +any part in the government of the nation? No, no, no! He meant this. +When he stood up and delivered his inaugural speech, he said this, "The +intent of the lawmaker is the law." + +I give them something from one of the greatest lawyers that ever lived +to think of awhile--John Selden: "The only honest meaning of any word is +the intent of the man that wrote it." At the time that the plan of lay +delegation was adopted, there was not a single Conference of the Church +on this wide globe, not one that distinguished between the ministry and +the laity that allowed women to take any part in its law-making body. +Some one will talk about the Quakers. But they deny the existence of the +Church, the sacraments of the Church, and make no distinction between +the ministry and the laity. Let them get up and show that there was ever +one Church in the world worthy of the name that allowed women to make +its laws. There is not one to-day. Let them name a Church, let them name +one that has allowed women in its law-making body; and yet such is the +blinding power of gush that men will say that our fathers all understood +it and proposed to put women in. The fact is, that they only proposed to +allow them to put us in. As soon as the General Conference adjourned the +women made an appeal in a public statement. They were asked to vote for +lay delegation, and were told that then they could set the Church right. +The opponents appealed to them to vote against it on the ground that it +would not make any difference to them. James Porter, Daniel Curry, Dr. +Hodgson (Professor Little thinks he was the greatest of them all) wrote +a series of articles in the _Advocate_, and it never occurred to them +that the women could come into the General Conference. Lay delegation +was only admitted by 33 votes. Had there been a change of 33 votes they +would not have come in. Every member of the New York East Conference +knows that Dr. Curry's influence was so powerful that he could almost +get a majority against it. And they know if any one had set up an +opposition to it on this ground, the whole Conference would have voted +against the movement, and that if it had not been for Bishop Ames and +Bishop Janes, who went to the Wyoming Conference where the majority was +opposed to lay delegation, and by their influence there converted my +friend Olin and others, he knows that if this matter of the women had +been in or understood, the whole Conference would have been against it. +It would not have been possible. Dr. Potts says that it is prejudice. +Nothing of the kind. Do you know there are 12,000 Methodist ministers +that are ciphers all the time except when they vote for delegates? Are +you going to presume that when the Church has a multitude of members, +that it is going to sit here and change, by an interpretation, a +Restrictive Rule, or put in what was never in, and never understood to +be in? The Restrictive Rule fills up the ministerial delegates. Every +time you put a woman in, you put a man out. This subject has never come +up here before. The question is this, Do those Restrictive Rules mean +anything? If they do, you cannot put in anything that the fathers did +not put in. And if you put in women as lawmakers; if you can read those +Rules and put them in there, you can change any one of the Restrictive +Rules by a majority of one. And I want to say to you, that if you do +it, you will prove to the Methodist Episcopal Church that the sole +protection we have against the caprice of a majority of the General +Conference is not worth the paper it is written on. All you have to do +is to get a majority of the Conference against the Episcopacy, and then +put any interpretation, and then you get a few women admitted, and this +you call the progress of the age. Mr. Chairman, I believe in progress, +and when the Church progresses far enough, it can change this law in +a constitutional way. But it has not yet gone far enough. These men +believe that the Church has never done it, or that it is best. Dr. Flood +said that they must be brought in in the light of progress. I affirm +that Dr. Flood's arguments all point in that direction--they must be +interpreted in the light of progress. When you do that you have got a +despotism. I want to go back to my constituents and say this: I exercise +all the power that our Charter gives me. But at the moment that anything +is proposed, and we put in what the fathers did not have before their +eyes, at that moment I stop and say, Thus far, but no farther. A +despotism is a despotism, whether it is a despotism without restraint, +the Czar with his wife, the Czar without his wife. You will turn this +house into a despotism, and you will find it difficult to defend +Methodism by its peculiar Constitution before the American people. + +If you want women in, there is another way to bring them in. Send the +question around as you did for lay delegation. There was only a doubt in +the General Conference of 1868, and yet they had a sense of candor. John +M'Clintock fought in favor of taking them in. But he said, "I think it +best to send the question around." True progress is not gained in any +other way. Some prefer a shorter cut. Let me say to you, "He that cometh +in by the door," the same hath a right to come in; but he that cometh in +another way, is not as respectable as in the other case. + + + + +ADDRESS OF REV. DR. A.B. LEONARD. + + +Mr. Chairman, unfortunately for me, I have received no anonymous +letters. And so I have nothing either sensational or startling with +which to introduce my speech. I shall not speak this morning under +any fear of being removed as an obstruction, or of having my future +prospects blasted. It is my privilege, therefore, to speak to you this +morning upon this subject calmly and dispassionately, having no motive +to either suppress or exaggerate the truth. The party who wrote Dr. +Buckley, threatening to remove him as an obstruction, must be highly +gratified to know that that obstruction has already been removed. +Brother Hughey removed the obstruction, extinguished the candle, and +destroyed the candlestick. + +We are to approach this question this morning, to discuss it purely upon +its merits. The ground of constitutional law was traversed thoroughly +yesterday morning in the opening speech by Dr. Potts, a speech that, +though he did not hear it himself, was heard by this body, and will +be heard through the length and breadth of the Church everywhere. It +remains for us who follow him simply to turn on a few side-lights here +and there, or to give an opportunity of viewing this question from a +new point of view. And, first, there is a line of argument that may be +helpful to some that has already been presented in part touching the +administration of our law and the interpretation of terms that is +worthy, I think, of still further consideration. + +Dr. Buckley said in the New York _Christian Advocate_ of March 15th, +1888: + +"The question of eligibility turns, first, upon whether the persons +claiming seats are laymen; secondly, whether they have been members of +the Church for five years consecutively, and are at least twenty-five +years of age; and, thirdly, upon whether they have been duly elected. If +women are found to be eligible under the law, they would stand upon the +same plane with men, in this particular, that they must be twenty-five +years, etc." + +Now, then, is a woman legally qualified to sit in the General Conference +as a lay delegate? Is she a layman in the sense of that word in the +Discipline? If she be not in, she cannot be introduced contrary to law +by a mere majority vote of the General Conference. The Doctor sometimes +writes more clearly than he speaks, and it was so in the occasion of +writing this article. Over against this we have one of (as Dr. Hamilton +would say) the "subtle insinuations" of the Episcopal Address, which +declares that no definition of "layman" settles the question of +eligibility as to any class of persons. For many are classed as +laymen for the purposes of lay representation, and have to do with it +officially as laymen, yet themselves are ineligible as delegates. Well, +in this case, we have the Episcopal Board over against the editor. Both +are right and both are wrong. The editor is right when he said of a +woman, if she be a lay member her right is clear as that of any duly +elected man. But he is wrong when he denies to her a right to a seat in +this body as a layman. The Episcopal Address is wrong when it says +that "no definition of the word 'layman' settles the question of +eligibility." But it is right when it says, "Many are classed as laymen +for purposes of lay representation, and have to do with it officially as +lay members who are not themselves eligible as delegates." + +In the practical work of the Church, and in the administration of its +laws, women have been regarded as laymen from the beginning until now. +They pay quarterage. If they did not pay quarterage some of our salaries +would be very short. They contribute to our benevolent collections, and +if it were not for their contributions, we would not to-day be shouting +over the "Million dollars for Missions." They pray and testify in our +class-meetings and prayer-meetings, and but for their presence among +us, many of those meetings would be as silent as the grave. They are +amenable to law, and must be tried by the very same process by which men +are tried. They are subject to the same penalty. They may be suspended; +they may be expelled. In all these respects they have been regarded as +laymen from the beginning. Indeed, we have never recognized more than +two orders in our Church. We have laymen and ministers. Up to 1872 but +one of these orders was represented in this General Conference. This +General Conference was strictly a clerical organization. But in 1872 we +marked a new epoch in Methodist history, and a new element came into +this body, and has been in all our sessions since that date. The first +step, as has been mentioned here before, was taken in 1868, when the +question of lay delegation was sent down to the members of the Church +over twenty-one years of age, and to the Annual Conferences. Dr. Queal, +if I understood him, made what is, in my judgment, a fatal concession on +this question. He distinctly stated, if I understood him correctly, +and I have not had time to refer to the report of his speech (if I +misinterpret him he will correct me), that when the motion to strike +out the word "male" was made, it was done for the purpose of putting a +"rider" on the motion and cause its defeat, and when that fact was made +known to those in favor of lay delegation, they said they would accept +it then with that interpretation, and the interpretation was that the +amendment would let women into the General Conference. + +Now, that being true, all this talk about the idea of the "women coming +in" being never entertained until very recently falls to the ground. It +was present on that occasion. It was understood by those that opposed +lay delegation, and that favored it, that if they passed this amendment +and the laymen were allowed to come in, it would open the door to allow +women to come in also. + +L. C. Queal said: + +I think I am entitled now to correct this putting of the case. + +Bishop Foss: + +Are you misrepresented? + +L. C. Queal: + +I am misrepresented in this, that while I stated that Dr. Sherman +put that on as a "rider," with a view to defeating the bill, that +immediately after thinking so I thought it might be the occasion of +securing the approval of the principle in the laity of the Church. That +is all I stated. All the rest of Dr. Leonard's statement is his own +inference--a misconstruction of the fact. A.B. Leonard: + +I understood Dr. Queal as I stated. I have not had time to refer to +the speech he made. I leave his statement with you, and you have the +privilege of consulting his speech as it is printed this morning, in +reference to this matter. It came to my thought very distinctly that the +idea of the possibility of women coming in was then lodged in the minds +that were both in favor of and opposed to lay delegation. + +Now, then, this vote that was taken, in accordance with the order of +1868, laid the foundation stone for the introduction of women into this +body. That sent the question of lay delegation down to be voted on by +the laity of the Church. If the women were not to be recognized as laity +here, why allow them to vote on the question of the laity at all? And, +having allowed them to vote on the question of the laity, settling the +very foundation principle itself, with what consistency can we disallow +them a place in this General Conference, when by their votes they opened +the way for the laymen coming into this General Conference? Do you not +remember that we had a vote previously, and the men only voted, and that +the lay delegation scheme was defeated, and the _Methodist_, that was +published in this city, being the organ of the lay delegationists, said +that "votes ought to be weighed, not counted"? And then the question was +sent back to be voted upon by both the men and the women? And let the +laymen of this General Conference remember that they are in this body +to-day by reason of the votes of the women of the Methodist Episcopal +Church. In 1880 we went still further. We went into the work of +construing pronouns. There had been women in the Quarterly Conferences +previously to that date; but there was a mist in the air with regard +to their legality there. The General Conference by its action did not +propose to admit women to the Quarterly Conferences. It simply proposed +to clear away the mist and recognize their legal right to sit in the +Quarterly Conference. Being in the Quarterly Conference, and in the +District Conference, they have the right to vote on every question that +comes before such bodies. They vote to license ministers, to recommend +ministers to Annual Conferences, to recommend local preachers for +deacons' and elders' orders. They vote on sending delegates to our Lay +Electoral Conferences, and they vote in elections for delegates to Lay +Electoral Conferences, and they vote in elections for delegates from Lay +Electoral Conferences to this General Conference. And there are men +on this floor to-day that would not be in this at all if they had +not received the support of women in Lay Electoral Conferences. Now, +brethren, let it be remembered that the votes of the women to send +delegates to the Lay Electoral Conferences were never challenged until +they came here asking for seats. They were good enough to elect laymen +to this body, but not good enough to take seats with laymen in this +body. With what consistency can laymen accept seats by the votes of the +women and then deprive women of their seats? I am surprised at some of +the "subtle insinuations" of the Episcopacy concerning constitutional +law. Allow me to say at this point that, having introduced into the +Quarterly Conference these women, and having given them a right to +vote there, and in the District Conferences, and in the Lay Electoral +Conferences, in all honesty we must do one of two things, if we would +be consistent, we must go back and take up that old foundation of lay +delegation that we laid in 1868, or we must go forward and allow these +women to have their seats. In a word, we must either lay again the +"foundation of repentance from dead work, or go forward to perfection." +And I am not in favor of going back. + +If it is true that the body of the Constitution is outside of the +Restrictive Rules, and cannot be changed except in the way prescribed +for altering the Restrictive Rules, then I say that this General +Conference has again and again been both lawless and revolutionary. +Every paragraph of the chapter, known as the Constitution, beginning +with §63, and closing with §69, was put into that Constitution without +any voice from an Annual Conference of this foot-stool. Not one single +one of them was ever submitted to an Annual Conference; §20, ¶183, stood +for many years in the Constitution of the Church, but was transferred +bodily from that Constitution by the General Conference to the position +it now occupies. You come and tell us to-day that we cannot change the +Constitution outside of the Restrictive Rules without going down to the +Annual Conferences; it is too late in the day to say that. We have made +too much history on that point. The present plan of lay delegation was +not submitted to the Annual Conferences. Bishop Simpson definitely +stated when he reported to the General Conference the result of the vote +ordered in 1868 that the question simply of the introduction of the +laity into the General Conference was presented to be voted upon by the +laity and by the Annual Conferences, but the "plan" was not submitted +to either to be voted upon, and the "plan" for lay delegation by which +these lay brethren occupy their seats here this morning was made in +every jot and tittle by the General Conference without any reference to +the Annual Conferences at all. + +I want to know, then, by what propriety we come here in this General +Conference to say that there can be no change of Part I. of the +Constitution outside of the Restrictive Rules. The General Conference +cannot alter our articles of faith, it cannot abolish our Episcopacy; it +cannot deprive our members of a right to trial and appeal. These come +under the Restrictive Rules, and cannot be touched by this body without +the consent of the Annual Conferences; but all else has been from +beginning, and is now in the hands of the General Conference. Let it be +remembered that this General Conference is a unique body. It is at once +a legislative and a judicial body; in the former capacity it makes law; +in the latter capacity it has the power to construe law. + +It is at once a Congress, if you please, to enact law, and a supreme +court to interpret law. Now, then, in admitting women to our General +Conference, we are simply construing the Constitution, and not changing +the Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States gives decisions +on the construing of the Constitution, and who ever heard of a decision +of the Supreme Court being sent down to be ratified by the State +Legislatures? The Supreme Court of the United States construes the +Constitution, without any reference to the State Legislatures, and so +we construe law without any reference to the Annual Conferences. If we +touch the law inside of the Restrictive Rules, we must go down to the +Annual Conferences. Outside we are free to legislate as we may. + +What is the Constitution for? The Constitution is designed simply to +limit the powers of the Legislature. In my own State of Ohio, for +illustration, we have an article in our Constitution that forbids our +Legislature to license the liquor traffic, but our legislators give a +license under the guise of taxing, but they cannot give us a license +law in form. The Constitution prevents it. There are States that have +Constitutions that have no word to say about the liquor traffic at all, +while they may either tax, license, or prohibit. + +This is a fact that is well settled, that the Constitution is a +limitation of legislative power, and where there is no such limitation +there is no restriction. + + + + +ADDRESS OF REV. DR. ALFRED WHEELER. + + +Mr. President, it will be well for us, so far as we have progressed in +this discussion, to see how near and how far we agree. It is admitted by +the friends of the report, or by the committee, that this is a question +of law, and to be decided exclusively upon principles of law. So far as +those who are opposed to the report have spoken, they conceive, as I +understand it, that the position taken by the committee is taken by +those who are advocating its adoption. Then we are agreed that it is not +a matter of sentiment, it is not a matter of chivalry. There is no place +for knighthood, or any of its laws, or any other of the principles that +dominated the contests of the knights of old. If it were a matter of +knighthood there is not a man on this floor that would deem it necessary +to bring a lance into this body. All would be peace and quiet. + +There are none that would hail with more joy and gladness the women of +the Church to a seat in this body than those of us who now, under the +circumstances, oppose their coming in. + +It is not either a matter of progressive legislation regarding the +franchise of colored men, or of anybody else in the country. It is a +question of law, Methodist law, and Methodist law alone. + +Now, so far as the intention is concerned of those who made the law, I +do not see how those who have kept themselves conversant with the +history of lay delegation can for a moment claim that it was even the +most remote intention of those who introduced lay delegation into the +General Conference to bring in the women, and for us to transfer the +field now toward women, in view of their magnificent work in the last +ten or fifteen years, back to twenty years, is to commit an anachronism +that would be fatal to all just interpretation of law. + +I myself was in the very first meeting that was ever called to initiate +the movement that at last brought in lay delegation. I voted for it; I +wrote for it; I spoke for it in the General Conference and in the Annual +Conferences. I was a member of the first lay committee, or Committee on +Lay Delegation, that was appointed here by the General Conference in +1868. And during all these various processes of discussion, so far as I +know, the thought was never suggested that under it women would come in +to represent the laity, nor was it ever suggested that it was desirable +that they should; so that the intention of the law-maker could never +have embraced this design--the design of bringing women into the General +Conference. I leave that. + +Now, I claim that the General Conference has no legal authority to admit +them here. We are not an omnipotent body. I know that the Supreme Court +of the United States, in that contest between the Northern Church, or +the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Church South, decided that the +General Conference was the Methodist Episcopal Church. I used that +argument myself upon the Conference floor in 1868, that the General +Conference could, without any other process, by mere legislation, +introduce the laity into this body. I claimed there and then that, +according to that decision, the Methodist Episcopal Church was in the +General Conference. The General Conference refused to accept that +endorsement of that Court, or that proposition concerning the +prerogatives of this body. And through all the processes that have +been ordered concerning the introduction of lay delegation that +interpretation of the constitution of the Church has been repudiated. +The Church herself rejected the interpretation that the Supreme Court +placed upon her constitution, and as a loyal son of the Church I +accepted her interpretation of her own constitution, so that now I claim +that the General Conference has no authority whatever to change the +_personnel_ of the General Conference without the vote of the Annual +Conferences. Before it can be done constitutionally, you must obtain the +consent of the brethren of the Annual Conferences, and I am in favor of +that, and of receiving an affirmative vote on their part. But until this +is done I do not see how they can come in only as we trample the organic +law of our Church under our feet. And to do this, there is nothing but +peril ahead of us. + +A simple body may disregard law with comparative impunity, but an +organic body that is complicated, complex in its nature, will find its +own security in adhering earnestly, strictly, and everlastingly, to the +law that that body passes for the government of its own conduct. + +Let us see, now, with regard to this Restrictive Rule. As I have said, +it has been admitted all along that the action of the Annual Conferences +must be secured. Here comes in the decision of the General Conference of +1872. I do not need to recite it. But let us bear in mind two facts. One +is, that this General Conference is a legislative body, and that it +is also a judicial body. As a judicial body, it interprets law; as +a legislative body, it makes law. The General Conference of 1872 +interpreted law, and the General Conference may reverse itself with +just as much propriety as a court can reverse itself. And if it be +the judgment of this General Conference that that interpretation was +incorrect, it is perfectly competent for this Conference to say so, and +have its action correspond with its own decision. + +There is another point. The case that was before the General Conference +of 1876 was a specific case. It was the case of the relation that +local preachers sustain to the Church, a particular case. This is the +principle of all decisions in law, that when a particular case is +decided in general terms, the scope and comprehension of the decision +must be limited to the particular case itself. And if a court in its +decision embraces more than was involved in the particular case, it has +no force whatever. And as this was a particular case submitted to +the General Conference, and the decision was in general terms, it +comprehends simply the case that was before it, and cannot be advanced +to comprehend more. And the reason of this is very obvious; for if it +was not the case, then cases might be brought before the court for its +decision that had never occurred. + +There is another point I wish to notice. The General Conference of 1880 +did not see the effect that legislation would have by admitting women +to certain offices. Certain affirmative legislation is also negative +legislation. When saloons are permitted to sell in quantities of one +gallon, it forbids to sell in quantities of less than one gallon; when +it says you can sell in quantities of one barrel, it forbids them to +sell in quantities of two. When the General Conference of 1880 +decided that women should be eligible in the Quarterly Conferences as +superintendents of Sunday-schools, class-leaders, and as stewards, by +that very affirmative conclusion, the subject was passed upon about +their taking any other position. That, I think, must be regarded as +sound, and a just interpretation of the law. + +But suppose it is not; the General Conference of 1880 certainly did not +understand the matter as the General Conference of 1872 did. For if it +had, there would have been no necessity for legislation at all, there +would have been no need for putting in the law as it now stands, +that the pronoun "he," wherever employed, shall not be considered +as prohibiting women from holding the offices of Sunday-school +Superintendent, Class Leader, and Steward. + +Now, for this reason, and for the further reason that it is a matter of +immense importance that we guard against despotism, I oppose changing +the _personnel_ of the General Conference without my Annual Conference +has a right to vote upon it, and it is voted upon. Despotism is a +suitable term. A General Conference may become a despot, and just as +soon as it goes outside of its legitimate province, then it usurps, and +so far as it usurps, it becomes despotic, and is a despot; and you and +I, so far as our Annual Conferences are concerned, do well to regard +with a deep jealousy an infringement upon our organic rights. The +only safety of the Church is the equipoise that is constituted by the +relation the Annual Conferences sustain to the General Conference, +and far safer is it for us to bring these women of the Church, elect, +honorable women, into the General Conference of the Church by the same +way that their husbands and brothers are here. + +There is another thought that I wish to suggest. What are the +possibilities with regard to lay delegation, supposing the design of +those who wish to bring women in without further action is successful? +You make lay delegation a farce in this body. The presiding elders and +pastors of the Church may act in co-operation, and they can elect +their own wives as delegates to this General Conference, and thus +lay delegation comes to be a farce. Some of you may laugh at this +suggestion, but it is an _in posse_, and it may easily be made an _in +esse_. It is important to us that the laity should hold the place they +have by the regulations we have, and they should be changed only to make +them more perfect. + +No body is safe without adherence to law. We may set lightly by law; we +may regard it as a thing to be laid aside at the command of excitement +or passion, but the nation that does that is a doomed nation, and the +Church that does that has its history already written. The only safe +course for us to pursue is to pursue the wise, careful, judicious, +and conservative--I mean every word--and conservative course we have +heretofore pursued through all our history. When we boast of what +Methodism has done, or what she is going to do, let us remember it is +because of her firm adherence to law. + +It is with her as it is with the German nation and the Anglo-Saxon +race--everywhere our glory is in our adherence to wise laws, and if we +pass unwise laws, in repealing them in the same wise. + + + + +ADDRESS OF GENERAL CLINTON B. FISK. + + +Mr. President and Brethren, to an onlooker of this remarkable scene, +this great debate now in the third day of its progress must be +suggestive of some of the marvellous plays, woven into song, which have +made the hearts of the thronging multitudes who have crowded this place +of meeting in the past throb alternately with emotions of hope and fear +as to the outcome of the parties involved in plot and counterplot. The +visitors to this General Conference, seated in their boxes and in the +family circle, Will say surely these honored men of God who have been +called as Superintendents of the affairs of our great conquering Church, +these chosen ministers of reconciliation and peace, these _male_ +laymen called by their brethren to their high places in this General +Conference, whose names at home are the synonym of chivalrous +goodness--surely all these of rank and talent and authority, whose able +and eloquent words have been ringing through the arches and dome of this +temple of music on the wrong side of the question, are but simply acting +the parts assigned them. In the final scene they will join hands around +the eligible women elect, who, in obedience to the call of the laity in +their several Conferences, are in their seats with us, and say, "Whom +God hath joined, let not _male_ put asunder." My brothers, let us +briefly restate the case. Five noble women of the laymen of the +Methodist Episcopal Church have been chosen as delegates to this General +Conference under the Constitution and by the forms prescribed by the +laws of the Church. As they enter, or attempt to enter, the portals of +this great assemblage they hear a voice from the platform, in words not +to be misunderstood, "Thou shalt not," and voices from all parts of the +house take up the prohibitory words, and supplement the voices of the +Bishops, "Thou shalt not." And one would think, from the vehement +oratory of the resisting delegates of this General Conference, that the +foundations of the Church were in imminent peril by the presence of +these "elect ladies" among us. + +Let us turn back a moment, and review the history of the rise, progress, +and triumph of the cause of lay representation. I claim to know a little +something about it, as I was on the skirmish line in the conflict, and +in all its battles fought until the day of victory. + +In 1861, to the male members of the Church, was submitted the question +of lay representation. It failed of securing a majority vote. Had it +carried, there would have been plausibility in the argument this +day made against the eligibility of women to seats in this General +Conference. The evolution of the succeeding eight years lifted woman to +a higher appreciation of her position in the Methodist Church, and her +rights and privileges became the theme of discussion throughout the +bounds of the Church. Among the champions for woman was that magnificent +man, that grand old man, Dr. Daniel D. Whedon, who, in discussing this +question, said: + +"If it is _rights_ they talk of, every competent member of the Church of +Christ, of either sex and of every shade of complexion, has equal +original rights. Those rights, they may be assured, when that question +comes fairly up, will be firmly asserted and maintained." + +And in answer to the expected fling, "But you are a woman's rights man," +he replied: + +"We are a human rights man. And our mother was a human being. And our +wives, sisters, and daughters are all human beings. And that these human +beings are liable as any other human beings to be oppressed by the +stronger sex, and as truly need in self-defence a check upon oppression, +the history of all past governments and legislation does most terribly +demonstrate. What is best in the State is not indeed with us the +question; but never, with our consent, shall the Church of the living +God disfranchise her who gave to the world its divine Redeemer. When +that disfranchisement comes to the debate, may the God of eternal +righteousness give us strength equal to our will to cleave it to the +ground!" + +The General Conference of 1868, after full discussion, submitted the +question of Lay Representation to a vote of all the members of the +Church, male and female, thus recognizing the women as laymen, as +belonging to the great body of the laity, and as vitally interested in +the government of the Church, and having rights under that government. +During the debate on the report of the Committee on the plan for +submitting the question as in 1861, to the male members, Dr. Sherman +moved to strike out the word "male." While that motion was under +consideration, Dr. Slicer, of Baltimore, said, "If it were the last +moment I should spend, and the last articulate sound I should utter, +I should speak for the wives, mothers, and daughters of the Methodist +Episcopal Church.... I am for women's rights, sir, _wherever church +privileges are concerned_." + +Dr. Sherman's motion was carried by a vote of 142 to 70, and the +question of lay representation was submitted to all the members of the +Church over twenty-one years of age. The General Conference did not ask +women to vote on a proposition that only male members of the Church +should be represented in the General Conference, and it did not then +enter the thought of any clear-headed man that women were to be deprived +of their rights to a seat in the General Conference. There were a few +noisy, disorderly brethren who cried out from their seats, "No, no," but +they were silenced by the presiding Bishop and the indignation of the +right thinking, orderly delegates. + +What does the Rev. Dr. David Sherman, the mover of the motion to strike +out the word "male," now say of the prevailing sentiment on that day of +great debate? I have his freshly written words in response to an inquiry +made a few weeks ago. On March 21st he made this statement: + +"Some of us believed that women were laymen, that the term 'men' in the +Discipline, as elsewhere, often designated not sex, but genus; and that +those who constituted a main part of many of our churches should have a +voice in determining under what government they would live. We believed +in the rightful equality of the sexes before the law, and hence that +women should have the same right as men to vote and hold office. The +Conference of 1868 was a reform body, and it seemed possible to take +these views on a stage; hence the amendment was offered, and carried +with a rush and heartiness even beyond my expectations....The latter +interpretation of the Conference making all not members of Conferences +laymen, fully carried out these views, as they were understood at the +moment by the majority party. Some, to be sure, cried out against it, +but their voices were not heard amid the roar of victory. Who can go +back of the interpretation of the supreme court of the Church?" + +It is amazing that brethren will stand here to-day and utterly ignore +the decision of our Supreme Court in defining who are laymen. Could +the utterances of any Court be more definite and clear than those of the +General Conference when it said, "The General Conference holds that +in all matters connected with the election of lay delegates the word +'laymen' must be understood to include all the members of the Church who +are not members of the Annual Conferences"? This decision must include +women among the laity of the Church. I know it is said that this means +the classification of local preachers. We respond that that only appears +from the debate. The General Conference was settling a great principle +in which the personal rights and privileges of two thirds of the +membership of our Church were involved. Surely, our Supreme Court would +have made a strange decision had they, in defining laymen, excepted +women. Let us see how it would look in cold type had they said, "The +General Conference holds that in all matters connected with the election +of lay delegates the word laymen must be understood to include all the +members of the Annual Conferences, _and who are not women_." We would +have become the laughing-stock of Christendom had we made such an +utterance. The Church universal in all ages has always divided its +membership into two great classes, and two only, the clergy and +the laymen, using the terms laity and laymen synonymously and +interchangeably. See Bingham's "Antiquities," Blackstone's +"Commentaries," Schaffs "History," and kindred authorities. It is sheer +trifling for sensible males to talk about a distinction between lay_men_ +and lay_women_. + +Women were made class-leaders, stewards, and Sunday-school +superintendents, and employed in these several capacities long before +the specific interpretations of the pronouns were made. They were so +appointed and employed in Saint Paul's Church in this city during the +pastorate of that sainted man, John M'Clintock, in 1860, and could the +voice of that great leader and lover of the Church reach us to day from +the skies it would be in protest against the views presented in this +debate by the supporters of the committee's report and its amendment. + +It is a well-established and incontrovertible principle of law that any +elector is eligible to the office for which said elector votes, unless +there be a _specific enactment discriminating against the elector_. Our +law says that a lay delegate shall be twenty-five years of age, and five +years a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It does not say that a +delegate must not be a woman, or must be a man. + +Women are eligible to membership in this General Conference. Women have +been chosen delegates as provided by law. They are here in their seats +ready for any duty on committees, or otherwise, as they may be invited. +We cannot turn them out and slam the door on their exit. It would be +revolutionary so to do by a simple vote of this body. It would be a +violation of the guarantees of personal liberty, a holding of the +just rights of the laity of the Church. We cannot exclude them from +membership in the General Conference, except by directing the Annual +Conferences to vote on the question of their exclusion. Are we ready to +send that question in that form down to the Annual Conferences for their +action? I trust that a large majority of this General Conference will +say with emphasis we are not ready for any such action. The women of our +Methodism have a place in the heart of the Church from which they cannot +be dislodged. They are our chief working members. They are at the very +front of every great movement of the Church at home or abroad. In the +spirit of rejoicing consecration our matrons and maids uphold the +banner of our Lord in every conflict with the enemy of virtue and +righteousness. Looking down upon us from these galleries, tier upon +tier, are the magnificent leaders of the Woman's Foreign and the Woman's +Home Missionary Societies. Our women are at the front of the battle now +waging against the liquor traffic in our fair land, and they will not +cease their warfare until this nation shall be redeemed from the curse +of the saloon. God bless all these women of our great conquering Church +of the Redeemer. + +Twenty years ago Bishop Hurst accompanied me on a leisurely tour of +continental Europe. In the old city of Nuremberg we wandered among +the old churches and market-places, where may be seen the marvellous +productions of that evangel of art, Albert Durer. In an old schloss in +that city may be found the diary of Albert Durer, almost four centuries +old. In it you may read as follows: "Master Gebhart, of Antwerp, has +a daughter seventeen years old, and she has illuminated the head of a +Saviour for which I gave a florin. It is a marvel that a woman could +do so much." Three and a half centuries later Rosa Bonheur hangs her +master-piece in the chief places of the galleries of the world, and +Harriet Hosmer's studio contributes many of the best marbles that adorn +the parlors of Europe and America, and no one wonders that a woman can +do so much. From that day when Martin Luther, the protesting monk, and +Catherine Von Bora, the ex-nun, stood together at the altar and the +twain became one, woman has by her own heroism, by her faith in her sex +and in God, who made her, fought a good fight against the organized +selfishness of those who would withhold from her any right or privilege +to which she is entitled, and has lifted herself from slavery and +barbarism to a place by the side of man, where God placed her in +paradise, his equal in tact and talent, moving upon the world with her +unseen influences, and making our Christian civilization what it is +to-day. Let not our Methodism in this her chiefest council say or do +ought that shall lead the world to conclude that we are retreating from +our advanced position of justice to the laity of the Church. Let us +rather strengthen our guarantee of loving protection of every right and +privilege of every member of our Church, without distinction of race, +color, or sex. Amen and Amen. + + + + +ADDRESS OF JUDGE Z. P. TAYLOR. + + +Mr. President and Gentlemen, when elected a delegate I had no opinion on +the constitutional question here involved. But I had then, and I have +now, a sympathy for the women, and a profound admiration of their work. +No man on this floor stands more ready and more willing to assist them +by all lawful and constitutional means to every right and and to every +privilege enjoyed by men. + +But, sir, notwithstanding this admiration and sympathy, I cannot lose +sight of the vital question before the General Conference now and here. + +That question is this: Under the Constitution and Restrictive Rules of +the Methodist Episcopal Church are women eligible as lay delegates in +this General Conference? If they are, then this substitute offered by +Dr. Moore does them an injustice, because it puts a cloud upon their +right and title to seats upon this floor. If they are not, then this +body would be in part an unconstitutional body if they are admitted. + +It follows that whoever supports this substitute either wrongs the elect +ladies or violates the Constitution. If they are constitutionally a part +of this body, seat them; if they are not, vote down this substitute, and +adopt the report of the committee, with the amendment of Dr. Neely, and +then let them in four years hence in the constitutional way. After +the most careful study of the vital question in the light of history, +ecclesiastical, common, and constitutional law, it is my solemn and +deliberate judgment that women are not eligible as lay delegates in this +body. + +Facts, records, and testimonials conclusively prove that in 1868, when +the General Conference submitted the matter of lay delegation to the +entire membership of the Church, the idea of women being eligible was +not the intent. The intent was to bring into the General Conference a +large number of men of business experience, who could render service +by their knowledge and experience touching the temporal affairs of the +Church. When the principle of admitting lay delegates was voted upon +by the laity, this idea, and no other, was intended. When the Annual +Conferences voted for the principle and the plan, this and this only was +their intent. + +When the General Conference, by the constitutional majority, acted in +favor of admitting the lay delegates provisionally elected, this idea, +and none other, actuated them. It was not the intent then to admit +women, but to admit men only, and the intent must govern in construing a +Constitution. + +Dr. Fisk said Judge Cooley is a high authority on constitutional law. I +admit it, and am happy to say that I was a student of his over a quarter +of a century ago, and ever since then have studied and practised +constitutional law, and I am not here to stultify my judgment by +allowing sentiment and impulse to influence my decision. + +Those opposing the report of the committee, with few exceptions, admit +that it was not the intent and purpose, when the Constitution and +Restrictive Rules were amended, to admit women as lay delegates. They +claim, however, that times have changed, and now propose to force a +construction upon the language not intended by the laity, the Annual +Conferences, or the General Conference at the time of the amendment. Can +this be done without an utter violation of law? I answer, No. + +In the able address read by Bishop Merrill, containing the views of the +Board of Bishops, he says: + + +"For the first time in our history several 'elect ladies' appear, +regularly certified from Electoral Conferences, as lay delegates to this +body. In taking the action which necessitates the consideration of the +question of their eligibility, the Electoral Conferences did not consult +the Bishops as to the law in the case, nor do we understand it to be our +duty to define the law for these Conferences; neither does it appear +that any one is authorized to decide questions of law in them. The +Electoral Conferences simply assumed the lawfulness of this action, +being guided, as we are informed, by a declarative resolution of the +General Conference of 1872, defining the scope of the word 'laymen," in +answer to a question touching the classification and rights of ordained +local and located ministers. Of course, the language of that resolution +is carried beyond its original design when applied to a subject not +before the body when it was adopted, and not necessarily involved in the +language itself. This also should be understood, that no definition of +the word 'laymen' settles the question of eligibility as to any class +of persons, for many are classed as laymen for the purposes of lay +representation, and have to do with it officially as laymen, who are +themselves not eligible as delegates. Even laymen who are confessedly +ineligible, who are not old enough to be delegates, or have not been +members long enough, may be stewards, class-leaders, trustees, local +preachers and exhorters, and, as such, be members of the Quarterly +Conference, and vote for delegates to the Electoral Conference without +themselves being eligible. + +"The constitutional qualifications for eligibility cannot be modified by +a resolution of the General Conference, however sweeping, nor can the +original meaning of the language be enlarged. If women were included in +the original constitutional provision for lay delegates, they are here +by constitutional right. If they were not so included, it is beyond the +power of this body to give them membership lawfully, except by the +formal amendment of the Constitution, which cannot be effected without +the consent of the Annual Conferences. In extending to women the highest +spiritual privileges, in recognizing their gifts, and in providing for +them spheres of Christian activity, as well as in advancing them to +positions of official responsibility, ours has been a leader of the +Churches, and gratefully do we acknowledge the good results shown in +their enlarged usefulness, and in the wonderful developments of their +power to work for God, which we take as evidences of the divine approval +of the high ground taken. In all reformatory and benevolent enterprises, +especially in the Temperance, Missionary, and Sunday-school departments +of Church-work, their success is marvellous, and challenges our highest +admiration. Happily no question of competency or worthiness is involved +in the question of their eligibility as delegates. Hitherto the +assumption underlying the legislation of the Church has been that they +were ineligible to official positions, except by special provision of +law. In harmony with this assumption, they have been made eligible, +by special enactment, of the offices of steward, class-leader, and +Sunday-school superintendent, and naturally the question arises as +to whether the necessity for special legislation, in order to their +eligibility to those specified offices, does not indicate similar +necessity for special provision in order to their eligibility as +delegates, and if so it is further to be considered that the offices of +steward, class-leader, and Sunday-school superintendent may be created +and filled by simple enactments of the General Conference itself; but to +enter the General Conference, and form part of the law-making body +of the Church, requires special provision in the Constitution, and, +therefore, such provision as the General Conference alone cannot make." + + +Now, sir, this language moves forward with a grasp of logic akin to that +used by Chief Justice Marshall, or that eminent jurist, Cooley, from +whom I beg leave to quote. Cooley, in his great work on "Constitutional +Limitations," says: + + +"A Constitution is not made to mean one thing at one time, and another +at some subsequent time, when the circumstances may have changed as +perhaps to make a different rule in the case seem desirable. A principal +share of the benefit expected from written Constitutions would be +lost, if the rules they establish were so flexible as to bend to +circumstances, or be modified by public opinion. + +"The meaning of the Constitution is fixed when it is adopted, and is not +different at any subsequent time." + + +This same great author says: + +"Intent governs. The object of construction applied to a written +constitution is to give effect to the intent of the people in adopting +it. In the case of written laws it is the intent of the lawgiver that is +to be enforced. + +"But it must not be forgotten in construing our constitutions that in +many particulars they are but the legitimate successors of the great +charters of English liberty whose provisions declaratory of the rights +of the subject have acquired a well understood meaning which the people +must be supposed to have had in view in adopting them. We cannot +understand these unless we understand their history. + +"It is also a very reasonable rule that a State Constitution shall be +understood and construed in the light, and by the assistance of the +common law, and with the fact in view that its rules are still in force. + +"It is a maxim with the Courts that statutes in derogation of the common +law shall be construed strictly." + +Here, sir, we have the language of Judge Cooley himself. It is as clear +as the noonday's sun, and he utterly repudiates the pernicious doctrine +that the Constitution can grow and develop so as to mean one thing when +it is adopted, and something else at another time. You can never inject +anything into a Constitution by construction which was not in it when +adopted. And you are bound, according to all rules of construction, to +give it the construction which was intended when adopted. No man of +common honesty and common sense dares to assert on this floor that it +was the intent when the Constitution was amended to admit women as lay +delegates. It follows inevitably that they are not constitutionally +eligible, and to admit them is to violate the Constitution of the +Church, which, as a Court, we are in honor bound not to do. + +It has been asserted with gravity that the right to vote for a person +for office carries with it the right to be voted for unless prohibited +by positive enactment. This proposition is not true, and never has been. +We have seen, when the Constitution and Restrictive Rules were amended, +the intent was to admit men only as lay delegates. No General Conference +can, by resolution or decision, change the Constitution and Restrictive +Rules. Grant, if you please, that the General Conference, by its action +in 1880, had power to make women eligible in the Quarterly Conference as +stewards and class-leaders, this could not qualify her to become a lay +delegate in the law-making body of the Church. The qualifications of lay +delegates to this body must inhere in the Constitution and Restrictive +Rules, according to their intent and meaning when adopted. It is +fundamental law that where general disabilities exist, not simply by +statute, but by common law, the removal of lesser disabilities does not +carry with it the removal of the greater ones. + +Legislation qualifying women to vote in Wyoming and elsewhere had to be +coupled also with positive enactments qualifying her to be voted for, +otherwise she would have been ineligible to office. This is so, and I +defy any lawyer to show the contrary. + +§3, Article I, Constitution of the United States, reads: + +"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from +each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six years. No person +shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty +years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall +not, when elected, be an inhabitant of the State for which he shall be +chosen." + + +These and no other qualifications are worded or found in the +Constitution of the United States touching the qualification of +Senators. Is there a layman on this floor who will dare assert that +under the Constitution of the United States women are eligible as +Representatives or Senators? Words of common gender are exclusively +used as applied to the qualification of Senators. The words persons and +citizens include women the same as they include men. Nevertheless, in +the light of the past, I am bold to assert, that any man who would dare +stand in the Senate of the United States, and contend that women are +eligible to the office of United States Senators, would be regarded by +the civilized world as a person of gush and void of judgment. + +Article 14, United States Constitution, §1: + + +"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the +jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, wherein they +reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the +_privileges_ or _immunities_ of citizens of the United States; nor shall +any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due +process of law, _nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the +equal protection of the laws_." + + +(Tax case and what was decided.) (Mrs. Minor _vs_. Judges of Election. +53 Mo. 68.) + +The first case indicates that the word citizen when affecting property +rights includes corporations. + +The second, that the word person, when it relates to the woman claiming +the right to vote, does not confer upon her that right. + +The language is: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall +abridge the privileges or immunities of any citizen of the United +States. Nevertheless, a Republican Circuit Judge held this language did +not entitle Mrs. Minor to vote. A democratic Supreme Court of Missouri +held the same, and the Supreme Court of the United States, in an able +opinion written by men known as the friends of women, conclusively +demonstrated that these constitutional guarantees did not confer upon +woman the right to vote. Why? Because, from time immemorial, this right +had not obtained in favor of woman, and these words of common gender +should not be so construed as to confer this right, since it was not +intended when made to affect their status in this regard. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 7. +by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMANTHA AMONG THE BRETHREN, *** + +***** This file should be named 9449-8.txt or 9449-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/4/9449/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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