In answer to the question whether, in Massachusetts, a woman could be a
member of a school committee, the Supreme Court returned the following
decision in 1874: "The Constitution contains nothing relating to school
committees; the office is created and regulated by statute; and the
Constitution confers upon the General Court full power and authority to
name and settle annually, or provide by fixed laws for naming and
settling, all civil officers within the Commonwealth the election and
constitution of whom are not in the Constitution otherwise provided for.
The question is therefore answered in the affirmative." The Supreme Court
of New York, in 1892, held that "School Commissioners are constitutional
officers within Article II. part 1 of the Constitution, and consequently
the law of 1892 giving women the right to vote for them is void." The case
was that of Matilda Joslyn Gage. The office of School Commissioner was
created after the adoption of the Constitution, and it was therefore urged
that the Constitution did not bear upon it; but the Supreme Court further
decided that the law gave the Legislature the right to appoint or to elect
the Commissioner; and as they had decided that the office should be
elective, the women could not vote for that office. They vote for
district-school officers under various local permissions or limitations.
In a case brought to decide the right of women to vote for County
Superintendent of Schools the Supreme Court of Illinois, in 1893, held
that, as the office was designated in the Constitution as elective, women
could not vote for it. The decision further said. "The votes for State
Superintendent of Instruction, and County Superintendent, are provided for
by law, and the Legislature cannot change the law. It may be that it is
competent for the Legislature to provide that women who are citizens of
the United States and over twenty-one may vote at elections held for
school directors and other school officers not mentioned in the
Constitution." Later, the Supreme Court held that women were entitled to