nl_e17

Blackwell, "Age of Consent Legislation," 1895
death is a greater misfortune than physical death. Would not most
parents consider the death of a daughter less of a misfortune than that
she should take the first step toward a life of vice?
So long as the State acknowledges any special obligation toward
minors in protection of property and person, it is certainly bound by
duty and interest to extend it to those who most need it. To assume
that a girl of fourteen or fifteen is not to be trusted in making a legal
marriage, but that a girl of eleven or twelve is competent to understand
and accept the consequences of an illegitimate connection, is a glaring
absurdity, only to be accounted for by the different motives on which
such action is based. No reason can be given for the low age of
consent that would not tell equally upon every restriction on the
freedom of minors. It is surely to the interest of the State that its girls
should grow up virtuous women. It cannot be its interest to facilitate the
work of those who would compass its destruction, in order to increase
the temptations to vice, already too powerful, which surround young
men.
Wherever the age of protection has been raised the result has
been for good only. It acts as a deterrent upon those who would
mislead youth. It strengthens the hands of the individuals and societies
who work for the protection and help of friendless youth. It would seem
sufficient to state the case fairly to accomplish our end, but the great
long-continued effort that has been needed to partially accomplish this
end testifies to the contrary. And constant vigilance is needed to keep
even what is gained. Vice is always watching its opportunity. Two
years ago a bill to lower the age of consent to its old standard came
very near passing the New York Legislature, and was only defeated by
the timely effort of a single member. It is said to be good policy to do
what your enemy opposes, and there is no doubt that all the vicious
element of our cities is opposed to our efforts. They recognize that our
present legislation is just what is to their advantage.
It is often objected to the advocates of woman suffrage, that
women can have all the legal rights they can justly claim without it, that
men are always ready to remove any proved injustice to them. Yet the
fact remains that the first States to raise the age of consent to that of
majority were those in which women had a direct voice in politics--
Wyoming and Kansas. There can be no doubt that had women a share
in legislation, the present agitation would be unnecessary, for these
disgraceful enactments would long ago have been erased from our
statute books. Indeed they would never have been placed there in the
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