substantial aid, and we looked to them especially, as the
power which should make the court efficient in the discharge
of its duties; that the new law had conferred on them
important rights, and corresponding duties necessarily
devolved upon them; that I hoped and believed they would not
shrink when so many influences were calling on them for
noble and worthy action; that if they failed us now, the
cause of equal rights would suffer at their hands, not only
in our territory, but in every land where its advocates were
struggling for its recognition; that if they would remain,
their presence would secure a degree of decorum in the
court-room and add a dignity to the proceedings, which the
judges had been unable to command; that we required the
assistance of good women all over the territory, and I
begged them to help us.

Judge Howe then spoke as follows:

It is an innovation and a great novelty to see, as we do
to-day, ladies summoned to serve as jurors. The extension of
political rights and franchise to women is a subject that is
agitating the whole country. I have never taken an active
part in these discussions, but I have long seen that woman
is a victim to the vices, crimes and immoralities of man,
with no power to protect and defend herself from these
evils. I have long felt that such powers of protection
should be conferred upon woman, and it has fallen to our lot
here to act as the pioneers in the movement and to test the
question. The eyes of the whole world are to-day fixed upon
this jury of Albany county. There is not the slightest
impropriety in any lady occupying this position, and I wish
to assure you that the fullest protection of the court shall
be accorded to you. It would be a most shameful scandal that
in our temple of justice and in our courts of law, anything
should be permitted which the most sensitive lady might not
hear with propriety and witness. And here let me add that it
will be a sorry day for any man who shall so far forget the
courtesy due and paid by every American gentleman to every
American lady as to ever by word or act endeavor to de