ghts, were discussed and adopted. The following
memorial to the Constitutional Convention, was presented by Mariana
Johnson:

MEMORIAL.

We believe the whole theory of the Common Law in relation to
woman is unjust and degrading, tending to reduce her to a level
with the slave, depriving her of political existence, and forming
a positive exception to the great doctrine of equality as set
forth in the Declaration of Independence. In the language of
Prof. Walker, in his "Introduction to American Law": "Women have
no part or lot in the foundation or administration of the
government. They can not vote or hold office. They are required
to contribute their share, by way of taxes, to the support of the
Government, but are allowed no voice in its direction. They are
amenable to the laws, but are allowed no share in making them.
This language, when applied to males, would be the exact
definition of political slavery." Is it just or wise that woman,
in the largest and professedly the freest and most enlightened
republic on the globe, in the middle of the nineteenth century,
should be thus degraded?

We would especially direct the attention of the Convention to the
legal condition of married women. Not being represented in those
bodies from which emanate the laws, to which they are obliged to
submit, they are protected neither in person nor property. "The
merging of woman's name in that of her husband is emblematical of
the fate of all her legal rights." At the marriage-altar, the law
divests her of all distinct individuality. Blackstone says: "The
very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during
marriage, or at least incorporated or consolidated into that of
her husband." Legally, she ceases to exist, and becomes
emphatically a new creature, and is ever after denied the dignity
of a rational and accountable being. The husband is allowed to
take possession of her estates, as the law has proclaimed her
legally dead. All that she has, becomes legally his, and he can
collect and dispose of the profits of her labor without her
consent, as he thinks fit, and she can own nothing, have nothing,
which is not regarded by the law as belonging to her husband.
Over her person he has a more limited power. Still, if he render