Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/392

Rh To-day, the Eastern Argus, a leading Democratic organ of this city, denounces this movement as the most "damnable heresy of this generation." We venture the prediction that its friends, if true to the progressive tendencies of the day, will realize the consummation of their cherished heresy in the proposed sixteenth amendment, which will abolish all distinction of class and sex.

On August 12, 1871, the announcement that Colby University would be opened to girls gave general satisfaction to the women of Maine. A correspondent says:

Hereafter young women will be admitted to this institution on "precisely the same terms as young men." They may take the regular course, or such a course as they may select, taking at least two studies each term. They will room and board in families in the village, and simply attend the required exercises at the college. The next examination for entrance will be on Wednesday, August 30. One young lady has already signified her purpose to enter the regular course. Four New England colleges are now open to women—Bates, at Lewiston; Colby, at Waterville, Me.; Vermont University, at Burlington, Vt., and Wesleyan, at Middletown, Conn. Let's have no more women's colleges established, for the next decade will make them unnecessary, as by that time all the colleges of the country will be opened to them.

October 26, 1872, another advance step was heralded abroad:

On motion of the Hon. James S. Milliken, Mrs. Clara Hapgood Nash, of Columbia Falls, was formally admitted to the bar as an attorney-at-law. During the session of the court in the forenoon, Mrs. Nash had presented herself before the examining committee, Messrs. Granger, Milliken and Walker, and had passed a more than commonly creditable examination. After the opening of the court in the afternoon, Mr. Milliken arose and said: "May it please the court, I hold in my hand papers showing that Mrs. Hapgood Nash, of Columbia Falls, has passed the committee appointed by the court to examine candidates for admission to the bar as attorneys-at-law and has paid to the county treasurer the duty required by the statute; and I now move the court that she be admitted to this bar as an attorney-at-law. In making the motion I am not unaware that this is a novel and unusual proceeding. It is the first instance in this county and this State, and, so far as I am aware, the first instance in New England, of the application of a woman to be formally admitted to the bar as a practitioner. But knowing Mrs. Nash to be a modest and refined lady, of literary and legal attainments, I feel safe in assuring Your Honor that by a course of honorable practice, and by her courteous intercourse with the members of the profession, she will do her full part to conquer any prejudice that may now exist against the idea of women being admitted as attorneys at law." Judge Barrows, after examining the papers handed to him, said: "I am not aware of anything in the constitution or laws of this State prohibiting the admission of a woman, possessing the proper qualifications, to the practice of the law. I have no sympathy with that feeling or prejudice which would exclude women