It was the undoubted intention to give School Suffrage to all women by this law, but at once Attorney-General Hamilton Ward rendered a decision that it did not apply to cities but only to places where separate "school meetings" were held, mainly country districts and villages.
In 1881 another attempt was made by the Legislature to confer School Suffrage on all women by striking out the word "male" in an old statute of 1864, but as it failed to amend the very portion of the law which referred to School Commissioners, this left the condition unchanged.
In 1886 the Legislature tried it again by enlarging the qualifications of voters, but as the words "school district" were used it did not succeed in giving the suffrage to any women except those who already possessed it.
In 1892 the Legislature once more came boldly to the rescue, and undertook to enact that women should have a vote for District School Commissioners, which would bring under its provisions all the women of the State. The Act read: "All persons without regard to sex, who are eligible to the office of School Commissioner, and have the other qualifications required by law, shall have the right to vote for School Commissioner."
As the Act of 1880 had said specifically that "no person shall be deemed ineligible to serve as any school officer by reason of sex," this seemed to settle the question. The Act further provided that "All persons so entitled to vote for School Commissioner shall be registered as provided by law for those who vote for county officers, and whenever School Commissioners are to be elected it shall be the duty of the county clerk to prepare a ballot to be used exclusively by those who, by reason of sex, can vote only for School Commissioner."
This Act went into effect in April, 1893, and in the autumn Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage registered in Manlius, Onondaga County. Immediately the board of inspectors were requested to remove her name from the registry. They refused and application was made to the Supreme Court to strike off her name, on the sole contention that she was not a lawful voter on account of her sex. The application was granted on the ground that the Act conferring upon women the right to vote for School Commissioner was unconstitutional. The inspectors obeyed the order. Mrs. Gage appealed to the General Term, where the order was affirmed, and then she carried her case to the Court of Appeals. The decision here was in brief that a School Commissioner is a county officer, and that by the State constitution only male citizens may vote for such officers. The decision closed by saying: "A Constitutional Convention may take away the barrier which excludes the claimed right of the appellant, but until that is done we must enforce the law as it stands."[395]
Thus after twenty years of time, four acts of the Legislature and three decisions of the highest courts, the School Suffrage for women is still confined exclusively to those of the villages and country districts. The law condensed reads as follows:
Every person of full age residing in any school district, etc., who owns or hires real property in such district liable to taxation for school purposes; and every such resident who is the parent of a child who shall have attended the school in said district for a period of at least eight weeks within one year preceding such school meeting; and every such person, not being the parent, who shall have permanently residing with him or her a child of school age, etc.; and every such resident and citizen as aforesaid, who owns any personal property, assessed on the last preceding assessment-roll of the town, exceeding $50 in value, exclusive of such as is exempt from execution, and no other, shall be entitled to vote at any school meeting held in such district, for all school district officers and upon all matters which may be brought before said meeting. No person shall be deemed ineligible to vote at any such school district meeting, by reason of sex, who has one or more of the other qualifications required by this section.[396]
This was the only suffrage granted to women until 1901, when the following was enacted by the Legislature: