A TRIBUTE TO JOHN MINTO 45
union. Our civil and criminal code, enacted by our early legis- latures of which Mr. Minto was often a member and always a valued adviser, has done more to break down sex distinctions under the law than that of any other American state. Those pioneer legislators who had toiled for six or seven months crossing the plains with their wives and children in their ox teams, had learned the value and superiority of true woman- hood, hence under the laws of Oregon there is no sex distinc- tion in the possession of property. A woman in Oregon can hold land in her own name, can sue and be sued, can administer upon the estate of her deceased husband, and is the legal guardian of her own children, she pays taxes and has a voice in saying how those taxes shall be expended. In Oregon no sex inequality or sex inferiority is recognized by law, and it can be truthfully said that no man living or dead has done more to incorporate those sacred and inalienable rights of the people into our statutes than our departed and beloved friend, John Minto.
Mr. Minto was a most retiring man who accepted office and position of public trust as a duty imposed upon citizenship. He was eminently qualified and might have filled any office in the gift of the people of his adopted state. He preferred his muse and worked solely in developing the latent resources of his state. He was a pathfinder in searching for highways and means of communication with other sections of this great northwest and the eastern states. I believe Mr. Minto. would have preferred the honor of discovering an advantageous moun- tain passageway for egress from and ingress to the Willamette valley or the improvement of some species of our domestic animals than the honors of a membership in Congress.
In politics Mr. Minto was a Democrat until the Civil War, when he associated himself with the Republican party, though he was never a strict partisan in any sense. He was a member of the Odd Fellows and Elk orders, and when he passed away was the oldest member of those orders in the state.
Mr. Minto was a student to the very last moment of his long and useful life. He read and wrote continuously and has
