nl_e17

Henry B. Blackwell, "The Case of Maria Barberi," Aug 1895
provocation and outrage are held to palliate or even to justify the fact
of homicide. How is it, then, that in the case of this poor girl all such
considerations are disregarded? If this sentence is carried into effect,
who will be most truly guilty of the crime of murder--the seducer, the
legal officials, or Maria Barberi? In the eye of reason and enlightened
ethics the convicted criminal will be the least guilty of them all.
The sentence of Maria Barberi is an object-lesson for woman
suffrage. To be weak is to be miserable. Had she been a man 21 years
of age and a voter, or even a boy of 15 years of age, the verdict would
probably have been altogether different. Had Maria been a wife and
her husband the avenger, he would have been applauded for the
deed, and in course of time might have been made a major-general
and a hero, as in the case of Sickles. Here is the odious contrast: For a
man and a voter pity and acquittal, followed by preferment; for a
disfranchised woman, even though a child, condemnation and
electrocution!
Such is New York justice in 1895. Clearly the Empire State is in a
bad way. There is but one way to better it. Add to the voting
constituency one million educated women who can read and write the
English language. Then women will be respected, for power always
commands respect.
It goes without saying that I do not counsel or justify homicide.
But, in the present state of society, if every man who seduces a child
of 15 leaving her no practical alternative but suicide or a life of
prostitution, were promptly put out of existence, the morals of the
community would be vastly improved. This girl has had no trial by a
jury of her peers. She has been tried, convicted, and sentenced by
men alone. If half the jury had been women as should be invariably the
case,--if there had been but one woman connected with the trial, no
such cruel sentence of capital punishment would have shocked the
moral sense of mankind.
I appeal to Governor Morton, who holds the pardoning power, to
rectify this great wrong. It is his official duty. He owes it to the honor of
the State to see that this legal child murder shall not be perpetrated.
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/aoc/doc17.htm (2 of 3) [6/5/2005 8:51:57 PM]
H.B.B.