r to collect my tax, one of whom made me all
the cost the laws would allow. The most incensed town officers
threatened that if I resisted taxation the next year, they would
take my house from me and sell it at auction. One of the
tax-gatherers asked me what I thought I could do alone in
resisting taxation. He said he did not believe there was another
woman in the State of New Hampshire who possessed the hardihood
to take such a stand against the laws. The editor of one of our
weekly journals, who professed to be an advocate of woman's
rights, and who was a candidate for representative in the State
legislature, condemned me through the columns of his paper, in
order to secure the votes of his fellow townsmen who were opposed
to woman's rights. He had nothing to fear from me, knowing that I
was only a disfranchised slave. Such unjust treatment seemed so
cruel that I sometimes felt I could willingly lay down my life,
if it would deliver my sex from such degrading oppression. I
have, every year since, submissively paid my taxes, humbly hoping
and praying that I may live to see the day that women will not be
compelled to pay taxes without representation.

MARY L. HARRINGTON.

_Claremont, N. H., January 17, 1874._

In 1870 a law was passed allowing women to be members of school
committees; and eight years later a law was enacted permitting
women to vote at school meetings. On the evening of August 7, 1878,
the House Special Committee granted a hearing to the friends[192]
of the School-suffrage bill, which had already passed the Senate by
a unanimous vote; and the next day, when the bill came up for final
action in the House, the following debate occurred:

Mr. BATCHELDER of Littleton said: This bill is one of the
greatest importance, and before we vote upon it let us have the
views of the committee.

Mr. GALEN FOSTER of Canterbury called upon Mr. Blodgett to give
his opinion as to the power of the legislature upon the question.

Mr. BLODGETT of Franklin said he had no doubt of the
constitutionality of the bill. School districts were created by
statute and not by the constitution; hence the legislature had a
perfect right to say who should vote in controlling their
affairs.

Mr. FOSTER said: The mothers of our children sh