USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Congress of Women : held in the Woman's building, World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 : with portraits, biographies and addresses > Part 87
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Mrs. Maria P. Peck is a native of New York. She is the daughter of Hon. Merritt Purdy, of Western New York, who was of Dutch origin. Both his father and mother belonged to the well known Dutch families of Albany, N. Y. Mrs. Peck's early education was under her father as tutor, afterward in an academy. She has traveled in Europe and quite extensively in our own country. She married Dr. W. L. Peck, an eminent physician, practicing in Iowa. They moved to Davenport in 1865. Her special work has been in the interest of her home and family. She is a graceful writer and frequent contributor to leading magazines. Her postoffice address is Davenport, Ia.
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vidual without infringing upon those of others, is not to be found in any one of these books, or in any few. So that, practically, the wisdom concerning the laws and their operations that are a constant menace to those controlling large business interests, is inaccessible to the multitude, except as it is gained in that great democratic free school, experience, which numbers many sorrowing graduates.
If a lawyer may be considered fully educated and equipped for his work when he has mastered enough legal lore to know where to find the information that he is in quest of at the right time and moment, what can be expected of those without any special training? And in none of the affairs of life, affecting our material interests is the maxim that half knowledge is worse than ignorance so applicable as in law.
With the importance which is now accorded to women in the financial as well as the social world, an importance which establishes a distinct and separate individuality in the body politic from a business and legal standpoint, a most perplexing problem with regard to her signature has arisen. It can not then be repeated too often that the signature of a woman, whether plain, simple or complex, in all business and legal transactions, from the signing of a communication, a check, a deed or a mortgage to the signing of a will, should be written plainly and fully, and with nothing added to or taken from. The addition or omission of a single letter, the changing from full name to initials, or substituting the husband's, causes confusion and, in cases of real estate transfers, may work harm.
Women in business affairs may be divided into three classes: the over-credulous and improvident, the over-suspicious and miserly, with a small surplus or remnant of conservatives, with clear business heads and quick insight that render their judgment almost unerring, that may be called the saving grace.
Col. Mullberry Sellers is a typical American character, and flourishes more or less fully developed in all our communities. The number of schemes that are con- tinually being hatched by these fertile financial geniuses for splendid gains on a small amount of invested capital would be amusing if they did not in so many instances draw hard earned dollars into the vortex of destruction.
The members of the second class have no confidence in money-making schemes of any kind, and are never caught in any of the delusive snares. They are afraid of real estate investments; banks they are morally certain are not safe, and the tradi- tional stocking becomes the place of deposit for many of these cautious souls until some friend or acquaintance, in whom they have perfect confidence, is found, who will undertake the management of their savings, thus relieving them of further anxiety. Who can estimate the tears that have been shed, the bitter anguish that has been caused to thousands of confiding women after finding that their little savings have been swallowed up in hazardous speculations, or swept away by dishonest prac- tices, leaving them absolutely without redress.
The members of the third or remnant class, however, conduct their business on the same business principles that successful men do. They are not afraid of banks, because they know that their soundness or unsoundness depends upon the business capacity of the men who manage them. Before investing in stocks or making large deposits in any one of them, they will investigate its condition, its resources, its man- agement, and then, when a panic is threatened, will not precipitate it by withdrawing their deposits. They know that there is no more safe or satisfactory way of making investments than upon farm mortgages, but they will, before making a loan upon such security, take the precaution to examine the title to the property under consideration to see that no cloud hangs over it, and they will inquire into the character and stand- ing of the local agent with whom they are dealing. They will further, if the loan is made in a state remote from the one in which they live, ascertain all the law govern- ing such transactions in the particular state, for in some they are specially favorable to the debtor. Then if the loan is made only up to the one-half or two-thirds stand- ard of value, nothing worse can happen than to come into possession of the land, which does not burn and can not be spirited away.
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These women know when to make a written contract and when a verbal one will be binding; they never sign a paper without understanding exactly its purport in all its bearings, and never give unlimited power of attorney to an agent. That so many women are disqualified for ordinary business transactions requiring exactness and judgment is not so much because of mental incompetence as lack of training.
Rastus S. Ransom, Surrogate of New York County, in an article in the North American Review, June, 1893, " How to Check Testamentary Litigation," makes some unwelcome statements about women. He says: "Many women are named as execu- tresses of wills, and it is my experience that they know little or nothing of business, rely largely upon their emotions and intuitions, and fall an easy prey to the ever-ready and always convenient sharper. My judgment is that women should never be com- pelled or permitted to undergo the labor and responsibility of these positions."
It is only fair to assume that Mr. Ransom, in giving expression to an opinion of this sort, is not speaking from prejudice of the sex, but is giving his honest convictions founded upon association and experience. It is a matter of record that all the prop- erty of the United States passes through the probate courts once in thirty years. By the appointment of persons largely interested as administrators or executors the per- centage allowed for such services is saved to the estate. Now if women are to be debarred from acting in such capacity because of incompetence much that would come to them from this source must go to strangers. This state of affairs is certainly deplorable and must result in loss to women, whether they do or do not act as execu- tresses of the estates in which they are chiefly interested.
One more quotation from the same paper: "Many intelligent persons do not realize the absolute right both in morals and in law of a man to dispose of all his prop- erty in his lifetime, to take effect only at his death, and which is defined to be his last will and testament. His right so to dispose of his property is as certain and sacred as his right to dispose of it by sale or gift during his life."
Embodied within this declaration of the law, as made by Mr. Ransom, there are many perplexing questions that are intimately connected with the rights and interests of women, especially wives. Believing that one instance drawn from actual observa- tion is more valuable than a dozen hypothetical cases, I will take one under my notice at the present time to illustrate this absolute right of man, both in a legal and moral sense, that Mr. Ransom so emphatically proclaims and so fearlessly maintains to be just and even sacred.
Mr. S, living a short distance from my home in Davenport, Iowa, owns four acres of land on which he is now living with his wife. Every dollar that was paid for this property, which is valued at $1,500, was earned by the wife, who is now in the neighbor- hood of sixty-five years of age and partially crippled from an accident. At present she works in the fields, makes the garden, milks the cows and makes the butter; she har- nesses her own horse, drives to town and sells her chickens, vegetables, butter and eggs, buttermilk and smearkase, and takes home, when she can get them, chairs to re-seat at odd moments, besides, in cases of illness in the neighborhood, acting as nurse. The husband, too fine a gentleman for this sort of work, leads a life of coni- paratively luxurious ease, and never contributes a dime to the domestic treasury.
Now Mr. S has, unquestionably, the legal right, and according to Mr. Surrogate Ransom the moral, to make a will disposing of, in any way to suit himself, all but one- third of this property at his death. If he should not survive his wife, whether he makes a will or not the court would take possession of this property, and from what is left after the settlement of the estate the wife would receive one-third; the balance would go to the eight grown children all away from home.
That so many men are better than this infamous law is the only reason that it is permitted to disgrace the statute books in so many of our states today. In all our broad land there is only one state, and that is California, that has righteously con- sidered the wife in the disposition of property.
Respect for the law has so long been considered one of the cardinal virtues, that
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women meckly acquiesce in those that discriminate against their interests, when by open rebellion a change could be effected. It is plainly a woman's duty not only to know what the law is respecting her rights, but also, what the law should not be.
Many women are unable to comprehend the principle that capital is labor, or that upon this principle rests its only equitable foundation; not physical labor alone, but mental labor also. It is only wealth that is accumulated without effort that is lightly esteemed by either sex.
This is so truc that it has grown into a proverb that one generation by labor and frugality accumulates wealth, the second enjoys, spends or dissipates, and the third begins the struggle for existence in poverty again. We are living in a transitional period, and possibly it is not so much what our rights are, or what our dutics to our- selves and to society with respect to property are today, as what they will be in the future, when justice, upon which all law is founded, invests woman with greater author- ity and responsibility by conferring upon her the law-making power.
Docs justice, though, which has been beautifully defined as the soul of the universe, peacefully confer its blessings? No, all the law in the world tending toward the amelioration of mankind has been born of agitation and contest; every principle is a victory gained over an inimical force. And so the pathway traversed by all great reforms has been paved with long-continued human effort, and in many instances cemented with blood. It is most fitting, then, that the symbols of justice should be the scales and the sword. The scales, so sensitively adjusted that the slight- est variation causes vibration, are used to determine what is just; the sword the power to enforce its execution.
Law, with all its cumbrous machinery, is a plant of slow development but of con- tinuous growth. The seeds were sown far back in the ages when the complex rela- tions growing out of differing wants and conditions of men began to be considered. Customs arising from associations became crystallized into rules, rules established by usage, by legislative enactments, became laws. The Romans legalized their robberies of land and laid the foundation of all our law governing property. The Venetians traded on the Rialto, and upon their operations the basis of our commercial law rests. "The law," says an eminent authority, " can renew its youth only by breaking with its past."
What, with all the weight of a century or more of usage added to a law, does this breaking with its past mean? New conditions and new demands may have arisen that render it odious to a large majority, yet with its existence the rights and interests of individuals and classes have necessarily become identified and it can not be overthrown without a struggle; witness our tariff laws today in proof of this state- ment. Who of our statesmen living today that advocated the Fifteenth Amendment to our Constitution would do the same thing again ?
If, then, when a law, cither good or bad, is once enacted and becomes a part of the working machinery of the system, if it is so difficult and even dangerous to repeal it, it is not surprising that conservative, conscientious men are slow to accept new theories which, when incorporated into law, admit a new and untried element to the already too great body of law-makers.
Allegorically woman may hold the scales in one hand and the sword in the other as the personification of Justice, but actually she is without power, except as a bene- ficiary of man, to defend her own rights of property. The ample, floating drapery may envelop her fair form emblematically, but no ermined robes of state or bench belong to her wardrobe. She is judged, but she can not judge.
This is true today; what will be tomorrow?
The history of all conflicts in which human rights are involved proves that when the wave of reform has once been set in motion it never recedes until it reaches the further shore. The demand for the ballot for woman has been made; it is founded upon a principle of right and justice that can not be denied, though it may be delayed. Indifferent, indolent women may oppose; Susan B. Anthony may never lift up her
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voice again in behalf of the cause; the Suffrage Association may cease to labor or to exist, and the principle upon which the demand is founded, enshrined in the hearts of millions not openly connected with the movement, will be carried on to a successful issue.
The time may not be near, nor is it very distant, when women, whether as a whole they desire it or not, will become as important factors in the law-making power of this country as men. What then is the duty of women today-not a few clever women, but all intelligent, thinking women? Is it not that they shall use this probationary period in preparation to meet the responsibilities that the new conditions will thrust upon them ?
The progress of humanity in its march toward a state of ideal perfection has ever been slow, and the ballot placed in the hands of women may not inaugurate a millennium, but it certainly should not be retarded by it. Give woman the ballot by all means; but first give her a rational understanding of the complex system of our laws and our government.
WOMAN IN AN IDEAL GOVERNMENT .*
By MRS. K. V. GRINNELL.
One of the most notable things said at the great congress of women in Washing- ton in 1888, was the remark of the Rev. Anna Shaw that "every reformer had a vision before he entered the work of reform.
Doubtless many a heart in her audience thrilled in response, in memory of the sublime experiences which opened the spiritual eyes to a perception of the interior forces and principles at work within and upon human society. For many years my mind has been searching for these ultimate principles.
The imperious demand of my spirit at last forced open the gateways that lead to the inner realms, and compelled its hidden meanings to be made plain to my comprehension. "The kingdom of heaven suffer- eth violence, and the violent take it by force," said Jesus truly.
In answer to my persistent inquiry and demand in the supreme struggle of my soul, was my vision opened to see and understand the great idea and underlying principles of human life, of social and governmental order, of the kingdom of God, in other words. These are expressed in the twelve-tribed nations of Israel, and symbolized in the magnificent vision of the new Jerusalem.
MRS. KATHERNI VAN GRINNELL.
In a vague and undefined way the thoughts and. sentiments connected with the idea of the Kingdom of God, or of the millennium, have always been cherished by the human heart. Its approach has been foretold these fifty years or more. The cry of the angel with one foot on the sea and one on the land, that the time of the end of the old dispensations had come-remembering not that the Kingdom is first within.
The greatest miracle that can happen, the greatest sign that can be given, is the " sign of the Son of Man."
The spirit must truly desire the truth before it can perceive and receive the stu- pendous fact that the earth is to be the arena of all that has been foretold concerning the destiny of the human race. The Kingdom of God is a political kingdom, if you please, governed by spiritual laws. That is, it is based upon both the niental and spir- itual laws of man's nature, which is a copy and reflex of the nature of God. It has definite organization and form of government. It is not a phantasmagora nor a mere sentiment, but is a real and human fact, involving human beings in their social and
Mrs. Katherni Van Grinnell was born in New York in 1839. Her parents were religious, enterprising and public spirited. They spared no pains to educate their children to become valuable members of society. She married Graham G. Grinnell of New York, a gentleman of culture, and has five children, three daughters and two sons, who are a crown of rejoicing to her. Her special work has been in the interest of a new social order which will give place to every interest of society in systematic form, and place woman in her right position as helper of man in every department of society. Her principal literary works are scientific essays and a monthly magazine. The character of Mrs. Grinnell is marked by a singu- lar openness to truth in its exactness of detail and fidelity to her perceptions and convictions. Her postoffice address is Mayfair, Ill.
* This article is an extract from an address, the full title of which is, " Woman's Position in an Ideal Government."
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governmental relations. It is the reign of law in every faculty of the human mind, and in every department of human society. All that we have known before about the Kingdom we have found in the Bible. From this book we read of the first inception of the idea, and the historical fact of a nation founded to realize it in their government and personal life. This was the Israelitish nation, and it was founded under the direct influence of Jehovah, who promised that it should be a "holy nation." Its history is one of extreme interest, and has a singular fascination for the devout and spiritual mind, and yet, so strangely have its history and prophecies been ignored, that Chris- tians generally are almost ignorant of its annals, and wholly ignorant of its import as a factor in the evolution of the race.
They miss entirely the purpose and intention of the book; and this notwithstand- ing their faith in the plenary inspiration of the Bible, and notwithstanding that they think their whole claim to eternal life lies in its pages.
Moses, during the memorable forty days that he was in the mountain with Jehovah, received the instructions which he afterward incorporated in what is known as the Mosaic law, which today stands superior to any other system of laws among ancient or modern nations. For this law was not only the expression of the will and wisdom of Jehovah, but of the internal necessities of the people. It was suited to the people of that child age. But we have come now to a more mature age, when, instead of commands as to children, we need a scientific statement of the laws of the mind, as well as of the physical laws. Law is the mode of action of internal forces. It is never imposed on man against his nature, but in accordance with, and as a part of, the fundamental principles of his nature. Indeed, when Moses finished the delivery of the law, he gave this as its binding force and reason. It was so natural that they needed no teacher, even from the heavens, to teach them how to obey.
Indeed it is now well known that their history and wanderings have been traced by unmistakable signs until their identity with the Anglo-Saxon race, of which we are a part, is fairly well established.
This brainy, energetic, practical, but spiritual people, then, are the veritable "lost tribes " of Israel. I do not propose, however, to enter into the details of this account. I only wish to trace the line of history to show our ancestry from whom we receive our inheritance of mental and spiritual power. This race is best adapted to the work of completing a true social and governmental order, based upon scientific principles. In their characters and in their prophecies were the most complete types and symbols of the new order, which is the final outgrowth of our historic ages. All these symbols and types find their key in the nature of man.
Each tribe was marked by distinct characteristics, and each stood for a basic truth and fundamental part of society. This was why God chose them to lead in the development of the Divine principles of life.
The Jews, whom we know as a distinct people today, have come to consider them- selves, and to be considered, as the only representatives on earth of this historic peo- ple. But the Jewish people comprise only a small portion of the nation of Israel, being the descendants of only two out of the twelve tribes. Ten of the tribes revolted and, choosing a king, set up an independent nation.
This was known as the House or Kingdom of Israel, but was also called Ephraim, because this half tribe led in the revolt. The tribes who remained loyal to Solomon's son were known as the Kingdom of Judah, from which come the Jews. After a few hundred years of almost incessant warfare between these divided nations, the Israel- ites were captured by the King of Assyria and carried away into captivity, from which they have never returned. From that time they have been known by the descendants of Judah, and all readers of their history, as the "lost tribes." But the burden of the ancient prophecies is the restoration of these two nations under the tribal order, and of their becoming reunited to form one nation again under one King David "whom I will raise up."
At a culminating period in the age of this people came or was sent Jesus. He
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offered to the Jews the opportunity of again restoring this ancient nation; not by war- like prowess, but by the simple observance of the spiritual principles of life. He sent His disciples to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, for He well knew that the twelve tribes must all be represented to complete the nation. History. tells us how He was rejected, and how the Jews immediately lost what little power remained to them. For the rejection or acceptance of great and universal principles of truth by the people affects the race universally for good or evil during the ages that follow.
After Jesus, appeared another great prophet who had been one of His disciples. He wrote a new revelation, mostly in symbols. Its symbolism concealed its interior meaning from the people, until the time should come when the human mind would be able to perceive the principles involved and the possibility of their application to earthly affairs and institutions. This is the order of evolution. The burden of this prophecy, which culminates in our day, is the sealing of one hundred and forty-four thousand of the people in tribes, under the name of the twelve tribes of Israel; after- ward of a multitude which no man can number. John saw that "Holy City," the New Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of Heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband, " having the glory of God, and the light was like unto a stone, most precious, even like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal." It had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon," which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Have we a right to treat this as a beautiful but meaningless fancy? The- ologians have sought in vain for its solution, and make no attempt to explain it. But science has entered the domain of religion, and gives a real theology and a clear explanation of these symbols.
The New Jerusalem is called a bride and seems most distinctly feminine, because here woman's special forces and functions find their first recognition and place in gov- ernment, and in all the great activities of society. And this place is perceived and stated first through the discoveries of science.
It forever fixes woman's place and shows her to be an equal factor with man in all the departments of government and of society.
She has already begun to perceive this in a limited way, and is seeking recogni- tion in politics as a necessary expression of her natural right and as a tardy act of justice on the part of men toward her. But she needs to have a more definite idea of her place in politics and in government before she will be able to induce man to grant her this right.
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