refore can not be taxable. The law which you quote as
applicable to me in your notice to make my tax return is in
direct conflict with section 30 of the bill of rights of the
constitution of the State which declares, "No person shall
be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due
process of law," And that surely cannot be due process of
law wherein one of the parties only is law-maker, judge,
jury and executioner, and the other stands silenced, denied
the power either of assent or dissent, a condition of
"involuntary slavery" so clearly prohibited in section 31 of
the same article, as well as in the Constitution of the
United States, that no legislation or judicial prejudice can
ignore it. I trust you will believe it is from no disrespect
to you that I continue to refuse to become a party to this
injustice by making a return of property to your honorable
body, as clearly the duties of a citizen can only be exacted
where rights and privileges are equally accorded.

Respectfully, VIRGINIA L. MINOR.

Again, in February, 1881, Mrs. Minor made an able argument before
the legislative committee on constitutional amendments in support
of the petition for the enfranchisement of the women of the
State. Her pivotal point was, "By whatever tenure you, as
one-half of the people, hold it, we, the other half, claim it by
the same." And again in December of the same year at a meeting of
the Knights and Ladies of the Father Matthew Debating Club, at
which the subject was, "Is the woman's rights movement to be
encouraged?" Patrick Long, Daniel O'Connel Tracy, Richard D.
Kerwen, spoke in the affirmative; several gentlemen and two
ladies in opposition, when Mrs. Minor, who was in the audience,
was called out amid great applause, to which she responded in an
able speech, showing that the best temperance weapon in the hands
of woman is the ballot.

Of the initial steps taken for the elevation of women in the little
village of Oregon, Mrs. Annie R. Irvine writes:

The Woman's Union, an independent literary club, designed to
improve the mental, moral, and physical condition of women, held
its first meeting in Oregon, Holt county, on the evening of
J