Raising the Age of Consent
SPEAKING of the age of consent, especially in Louisiana, where a bill has just passed the Senate raising the age limit from twelve to sixteen years, the Pacific Ensign forcibly puts the case in this way: “There is nothing more infamous than for the men of a great commonwealth to declare that their daughters and sisters at the age of twelve years are possessed of the knowledge and discretion that will enable them to protect themselves against the seductions of the other sex, and are authorized at pleasure to enter on a life of shame. It shows that either the men have given no consideration to the subject, and are wholly ignorant of its meaning and bearing, or that they realize the advantage the law gives them over female infants, and they desire to hold onto it. Either alternative is bad enough.” The latter is infernal.