Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/751

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V.—No person shall be. . . . deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

IX.—The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

XIV. Sec. 1.—All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction, the equal protection of the laws.

The plaintiff states, that by reason of the wrongful act of the defendant as aforesaid, she has been damaged in the sum of ten thousand dollars, for which she prays judgment.

''Demurrer. In the Circuit Court of St. Louis County:'' Virginia L. Minor and Francis Minor, her husband, Plaintiffs, vs. Reese Happersett.

The defendant, Reese Happersett, demurs to the petition of plaintiffs, and for cause of demurrer defendant states that said petition does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, for the following reasons:

1. Because said Virginia L. Minor, plaintiff, had no right to vote at the general election held in November, 1872, in said petition referred to.

2. Because said Virginia L. Minor had no right to be registered for voting by said defendant, at the time and iu the manner in said petition alleged.

3. Because it was the duty of the defendant to refuse to place said Virginia L. Minor's name upon the list of registered voters in said petition referred to.

All of which appears by said petition. ,Atty for Deft.

The defense, in substance, being based upon the Constitution of Missouri, which provides (Art. IL. Sec. 18) that "every male citizen of the United States, etc, . . . . shall be entitled to vote"; and also upon the registration law of said State, approved March 10, 1871, which is as follows:

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:

1.—Every male citizen of the United States, and every person of foreign birth who may have declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, according to law, not less than one year nor more than five years before he offers to vote, who is over the age of twenty-one years, who has resided in this State one year next preceding his registration as a voter, and during the last sixty days of that period shall have resided in the county, city, or town where he seeks registration as a voter, who is not convicted of bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime, nor directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager depending upon the result of the election for which such registration is made, nor serving at the time of such registration in the regular army or navy of the United States, shall be entitled to vote at such elections for all officers, State, county, or municipal, made elective by the people, or any other election held in pursuance of the laws of this State; but he shall not vote elsewhere than in the election district where his name is registered, except as provided in the twenty-first section of the second article of the Constitution.

2.—The several clerks of the County Courts in this State shall provide a suitable registration book for each election district in their several counties, which shall hava written or printed therein the following oath: "We the undersigned, do solemnly swear