lass
and condition. And here is the reason why men differ in their
interpretations of law. They differ in their organizations; they
see everything from a different standpoint. Could ideas of
justice, and liberty, and equality be more grandly and
beautifully expressed than in the preamble to our Federal
Constitution?

It is an insult to those Revolutionary heroes to say that, after
seven years' struggle with the despotic ideas of the old world,
in the first hour of victory, with their souls all on fire with
new-found freedom, they sat down like so many pettifogging
lawyers, and drew up a little instrument for the express purpose
of robbing women and negroes of their inalienable rights. Does
the preamble look like it? Women did vote in America, at the time
the Constitution was adopted. If the framers of the Constitution
meant they should not, why did they not distinctly say so? The
women of the country, having at last roused up to their rights
and duties as citizens, have a word to say as to the "intentions"
of the fathers. It is not safe to leave the "intentions" of the
Pilgrim fathers, or the Heavenly Father, wholly to masculine
interpretation, for by Bible and Constitution alike, women have
thus far been declared the subjects, the slaves of men.

But able jurists tell us that the "intention" of the framers of a
document must be judged by the letter of the law. Following this
rule the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia has decided
that the XIV. Amendment does affect the status of women; that it
advances them to full citizenship, and clothes them with the
capacity to become voters. The exact language of Judge Cartter,
who spoke for the court, is as follows:

All that has been accomplished by this amendment to the
Constitution, or its previous provisions, is to distinguish
them (women) from aliens, and make them capable of becoming
voters. In giving expression to my judgment, this clause
does advance them to full citizenship, and clothes them with
the capacity to become voters.

If so much has been done, we have already gone beyond the
"intention" of the framers of the amendments, if, as some say,
they did not intend to touch the status of woman at all. But with
or without intent, a law stands