ation; the country is too new; in fact, the most and only
work for woman suffrage has been done by Matilda Joslyn Gage and
myself, and, owing to disadvantages mentioned, that has been but
little. Mrs. Gage reached Dakota just at the close of the Huron
convention, held in June, 1883, to discuss the question of
territorial division. The resolutions of the convention declared
that just governments derived their powers from the consent of
the governed; that Dakota possessed a population of 200,000,
women included; that the people of a territory have the right, in
their sovereign capacity, to adopt a constitution and form a
State government. Accordingly, a convention was called for the
purpose of enabling those residing in that part of Dakota south
of the forty-sixth parallel to organize a State. Mrs. Gage at
once addressed a letter to the women of the territory and to the
constitutional convention assembled at Sioux Falls:

_To the Women of Dakota:_

A convention of men will assemble at Sioux Falls, September
4, for the purpose of framing a constitution and pressing
upon congress the formation of a State of the southern half
of the territory. This is the moment for women to act; it is
the decisive moment. There can never again come to the women
of Dakota an hour like the present. A constitution is the
fundamental law of the State; upon it all statute laws are
based, and upon the fact whether woman is inside or outside
the pale of the constitution, her rights in the State
depend.

The code of Dakota, under the head of "Personal Relations,"
says: "The husband is the head of the family. He may choose
any reasonable place, or mode of living, and the wife must
conform thereto." Under this class legislation, which was
framed by man entirely in his own interests, the husband
may, and in many cases does, file a preemption claim, build
a shanty, and place his wife upon the ground as "a
reasonable place and mode of living," while he remains in
town in pursuit of business or pleasure.

Let us examine this condition of affairs a little closer. If
the wife is not pleased with this "place and mode of
living," but should leave it, she is, u