d above the
homestead, after paying all the husband's debts, she now has, not
merely the difference, as heretofore, between the amount of the
tax and the income on one-third, but she may avoid the tax and
other costs of keeping it, by selling her third, if she prefers,
and putting the money at interest. The law still puts whatever
may be left of the other two-thirds, after payment of debts, into
the hands of the probate judge and others, and the interest
thereof, or even the principal, may go to reward them for their
services, or, if falling into honest hands, it may be left for
the support and education of the children.

The legislature of 1877 submitted a constitutional amendment
giving women a vote on the temperance question. This seemed
likely to be carried by default of agitation, as was that of
school suffrage, until within a few weeks of the election, when
the liquor interest combined all its forces of men and money and
defeated it by a large majority. The next year the temperance
people made a strong effort to get the proposition re-submitted,
but to no purpose.

In 1879, acting upon the plan proposed to all the States by the
National Association, we petitioned for the adoption of a joint
resolution asking congress to submit to the several State
legislatures an amendment to the National constitution,
prohibiting the disfranchisement of woman. Mrs. Stearns and
others followed up the petitions with letters to the most
influential members, in which they argued that the legislatures
of the States, not the rank and file of the electors, ought to
decide this question; and further, that the same congress that
had granted woman the privilege of pleading a case before the
Supreme Court of the United States would doubtless pass a
resolution submitting to the legislatures the decision of the
question of her right to have her opinion on all questions
counted at the ballot-box. The result was a majority of six in
the Senate in favor of the resolution, while in the House there
was a majority of five against it.

Since 1879, our legislature has met biennially. In 1881 the
temperance women of the State again petitioned for the right to
vote on the question of licensing the sale of liquor. Failing to
get that, or a prohibitory law, they b