In a speech of Senator George G. Vest, of Missouri, in the United States Senate, January 25, 1887, these:  “I now propose to read from a pamphlet sent to me by a lady....  She says to her own sex:  ’After all, men work for women; or, if they think they do not, it would leave them but sorry satisfaction to abandon them to such existence as they could arrange without us.’

“Oh, how true that is, how true!”

In 1890 a bill was introduced in the New York Senate to lower the “age of consent”—­the age at which a girl may legally consent to sexual intercourse—­from 16 to 14.  It failed.  In 1892 the brothel keepers tried again in the Assembly.  The bill was about to be carried by universal consent when the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, feeling the importance of the measure, called for the individual yeas and nays, in order that the constituents of the representatives might know how their legislators voted.  The bill thereupon collapsed.  In 1889 a motion was made in the Kansas Senate to lower the age of consent from 18 to 12.  But the public heard of it; protests flowed in; and under the pressure of these the law was allowed to remain as it was.

Such are some typical examples of the warfare of the opposition to all that pertains to advancing the status of women.  As I review the progress of their rights, let the reader recollect that this opposition was always present, violent, loud, and often scurrilous.

In tracing the history of women’s rights in the United States my plan will be this:  I shall first give a general review of the various movements connected with the subject; and I shall then lay before the reader a series of tables, wherein may be seen at a glance the status of women to-day in the various States.

[Sidenote:  Single women.]

[Sidenote:  History of agitation for women’s rights.]

In our country, as in England, single women have at all times had practically the same legal rights as men; but by no means the same political, social, educational, or professional privileges; as will appear more conclusively later on.

We may say that the history of the agitation for women’s rights began with the visit of Frances Wright to the United States in 1820.  Frances Wright was a Scotchwoman, born at Dundee in 1797, and early exhibited a keen intellect on all the subjects which concern political and social reform.  For several years after 1820 she resided here and strove to make men and women think anew on old traditional beliefs—­more particularly on theology, slavery, and the social degradation of women.  The venomous denunciations of press and pulpit attested the success of her efforts.  In 1832 Lydia Maria Child published her History of Woman, a resume of the status of women; and this was followed by numerous works and articles, such as Margaret Fuller’s, The Great Lawsuit, or Man vs.  Woman:  Woman vs.  Man, and Eliza Farnham’s Woman and her Era.