in the penitentiary for life.

The Constitutional Convention of 1890 provided that no Legislature
should repeal or impair the above property rights of married women.

This convention was called primarily to change the constitution with
reference to the elimination of the negro vote. It was composed of
representative men thoroughly alive to what they construed as the best
interests of the State. As one way of circumventing the threatened
supremacy of this vote, the enfranchisement of women was variously
considered. The first amendment for this purpose was submitted by
Judge John W. Fewell:

_Resolved_, That it is a condition necessary to the solution of
the franchise problem, that the right to vote shall be secured by
proper constitutional enactment to every woman who shall have
resided in this State six months, and who shall be 21 years of
age or upward, and who shall own, or whose husband, if she have a
husband, shall own real estate situate in this State of the clear
value of $300 over and above all incumbrances.

The vote of any woman voting in any election shall be cast by
some male elector, who shall be thereunto authorized in writing
by such woman so entitled to vote; such constitutional amendment
not to be so framed as to grant to women the right to hold
office.

This was referred to the Committee on Franchise, composed of
thirty-five members, but was defeated. The idea was that a great many
white women owned property, while very few negro women did, hence the
woman vote would furnish a reserve fund which could be called out in
an emergency, the author of the measure himself being "not an advocate
of female suffrage generally," according to his remarks before the
convention. Many, perhaps a majority, at one time favored the scheme,
it was said, though comparatively few of the committee recognized the
justice of woman's enfranchisement _per se_.

J. W. Odom offered, among other measures from the "California
Alliance" of DeSoto County, a proposition that the right of suffrage
be conferred upon women on "certain conditions" not specified. John P.
Robinson and D. J. Johnson also submitted sections providing for
"female suffrage under certain conditions." Jordan L. Morris offered
the following:

The Legislature shall have power to confer the elective franchise
on all women who are citizens of the State and of the United
States, 21 year