BLACKWELL FAMILY                  Henry B. Blackwell                      Mr. Myers[*HBB*]
OFFICE OF   
The Woman's Journal,
 No. 3 Park Street.

Boston,   March 26 1896
Dear Mr Myers
               It would be a great gain if 
you can get the clause of the law of
seduction that requires a girl to prove
previous good moral character, stricken out.
It is contrary to every recognized principle
of English and American law which
presumes every man or woman innocent until
proved guilty. Its effect is to prevent girls from
incurring so odious a liability & so they do not complain.
But no legislation on the subject of the
age of consent will be satisfactory which does
not recognize the duty of the state towards minors,
e.g., to confer the maximum of protection, physical
and moral, upon both girls and boys so long
as they are legally under guardianship. We
confer this absolute protection in the case of
property. We guard both girls and boys under
21 from pecuniary seduction, by refusing to
recognize consent; by making the actual fact of
consent legally invalid and inoperative.
Just what we do in the case of girls we should 
do in the case of boys and vice versa. Any
adult who enters into pecuniary transactions
with a minor does so at his peril. Let us be
logical. What do we mean by minority and
majority ages? By minority incapacity for free
agency on account of mental and moral immaturity.
By majority capacity for free agency on accountof mental and moral maturity. Before
majority personal responsibility is
limited; after majority it is complete.
Now if we wish to diminish, as far as
possible, the social evil, we must adopt
means to ends. It appears that 7/8ths
of prostitutes have been corrupted before
they have become legally free moral agents;
and in most cases by men of 21 years and
upwards. In hardly a single case, under
existing laws, has anyone such man been
punished, while their victims are branded
with lifelong infamy. How can this
destruction of girls be prevented? Only, as
it seems to me, by being true to the legal
principle. We affirm that minors, being
subjects of guardianship, neither they nor
their parents or guardians can give legal
consent to acts of social intercourse, and that
adults who enter into improper relations
with minors must do so at their peril.
The buyer of property must search the title and
if the seller proves to be a minor the buyer suffers.
In regard to the danger of blackmail
I will suggest that since fornication is a
crime no man or boy can be blackmailed,
unless he has first become a criminal,
and the liability to be blackmailed is itself
one of the penalties attached to the commission
of a crime and will be a powerful deterrent
from crime. Moreover all who are parties to a
crime defined as rape will run such great risk by
harboring young girl prostitutes that they will cease to
do so. Grown men (and women) becoming aware that
by improper relations with minors they are legally
guilty of rape will carefully avoid running the
risk.
Excuse my writing at such length
Yours truly
Henry B Blackwell