Section 1, of Article I., As to the Right of Suffrage, and

Section 4, of Article III., which provides that members of the legislature must be free white male citizens. "Free" and "white" have lost their meaning (if the words in that use ever had any suitable or good meaning), but the word "male" still retains its full force and effect. If this express restriction exists in the constitution as to any other office, it has escaped my notice. It is true that the words "person" and "citizen" frequently occur in other parts of the constitution in connection with eligibility and qualification for office, and I fully admit that by usage--"time-honored usage," if you will--these phrases have in common acceptation been taken to mean man in the masculine gender only, and to exclude woman. But a recent decision in the Court Exchequer, England, holding that the generic term "man" includes woman also, indicates our progress from a crude barbarism to a better civilization.

The office of county superintendent was created by chapter 52 of the acts of the seventh General Assembly, laws of 1868, pages 52-72. Neither in that act, nor in any subsequent legislation on the subject, have I been able to find any express provisions making male citizenship a test of eligibility for the place, or excluding women; and when I look over the duties to be performed by that officer--as I have with some care, and, I trust, not without interest--I deem it exceedingly fortunate for the cause of education in Iowa that there is no provision in the law preventing women from holding the office of county superintendent of common schools. I know that the pronoun "he" is frequently used in different sections of the act, and referring to the officer; but, as stated above, this privilege of the citizen cannot be taken away or denied by intendment or implication; and women are citizens as well and as much as men.

I need scarcely add that, in my opinion, Miss Addington is eligible to the office to which she has been elected; that she will be entitled to her pay when she qualifies and discharges the duties of the office, and that her decisions on appeal, as well as all her official acts, will be legal and binding. It is perhaps proper to state that an opinion on this question, substantially in agreement with the present one, was sent from this office to a gentleman writing from Osage, in Mitchell county, several weeks ago, which for some reason unknown to me, seems not to have been made public in the county. I have the honor to be, etc.,

HENRY O'CONNOR, Attorney-General.

Miss Addington, in her short letter of inquiry to the superintendent, has the following modest conclusion: "The position is not one I should have chosen for myself, but since my friends have shown so much confidence in me, and many of them are desirous that I should accept the office, I feel inclined to gratify them, if it be found there is nothing incompatible in my doing so."

The question of the eligibility of women to hold school offices was again raised at the October election of 1875. Miss Elizabeth S. Cooke was elected to the office of superintendent of common schools in Warren county. The question of her right to hold the office was carried by her opponent, Mr. Huff, to the District Court of that county, by appeal; and that court decided that the defendant, Miss Cooke, "being a woman, was ineligible to the office." It was then carried to the Supreme Court of the State, which held that "there is no constitutional inhibition upon the rights of women to hold the office of county superintendent." In the meantime, however, and immediately following the decision of the Warren county judge, the General Assembly, March 2, 1876, promptly came to the rescue and passed the following act, almost unanimously: