ot own the children that
are born of her. The husband exclusively controls them while
living, and by his will he may, and often does, bequeath to
somebody else the custody and care of them after his death. And
the law which we men make enforces all this to-day. I trust that
most of us are a great deal better than the law. If the wife of a
man should suffer by an accident on a railroad, and suit should
be brought to recover against the company for injury to her
person, the suit brought by the husband would be upon the ground
that his wife was his servant, and he had lost her service. If he
did not, he could not recover.

Mrs. STANTON.--Is such the law in case of a daughter?

Mr. RIDDLE.--So far as that is concerned, where the daughter is a
minor, it is the same as the case of a son a minor; but the wife
is always the servant of the husband; she never graduates from
him; she never becomes of age or arrives at the years of
discretion. (Sotto voce.) If she had, she never would have
entered into that condition. Miss Anthony would say the law
pronounces the state of matrimony to be a condition of servitude
for the wife in express terms. How does the XV. Amendment apply
to her? Here is the previous condition of servitude provided for;
and this XV. Amendment in its effect was but to enforce the XIV.
in favor of persons held in a previous and, of course, a
continuing condition of servitude. Does this really abrogate the
servitude of the wife, and invoke in her favor the action of
Congress? My distinguished brother, Butler, said this morning,
that the clause relative to the previous condition of servitude
applied only to widows. (Laughter.)

But, ladies and gentlemen, aside from badinage, for the subject
is too grave and too solemn, it comes back to this thing. The
Constitution of the United States solemnly declares that every
person born and naturalized in the United States, and within its
jurisdiction, are citizens; and that no State shall pass, or
enforce a law to abrogate the privileges and immunities of
citizenship. We do not need any XVI. Amendment. We need only
intelligent, firm decisive, and deciding--reasonably brave
courts, and to have a question made and brought to their
adjudication. I propose to offer Mrs. Griffing and two or three