74 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



It might, also, be worth while, in view of the presence of 

 negroes and Indians, to make some record of race, though this 

 would probably not be done with sufficient accuracy, until a 

 change, described below, is made in the parties making such 

 records. 



The present law makes a poor apology for records of race 

 and nationality, in requiring that of color. This provision is 

 merely a relic of wicked prejudices, which the blood shed in 

 our great war should have washed away. In the name of 

 Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, and the countless other mar- 

 tyrs for universal liberty, let us cleanse our records of such 

 stains. Social science recognizes the distinction between ne- 

 gro or Indian, and Anglo-American, as she does that between 

 Anglo-American, German, Celtic and Scandinavian. The dis- 

 tinction between white and black is not scientific but barbaric. 



The word " color " should therefore be exchanged for the 

 word "race," or entirely omitted. Indeed the mere substitu- 

 tion of the word " age " for the word " color," would be a great 

 practical benefit, and should, in the opinion of this writer, be 

 secured during the present session of the legislature by a com- 

 mittee appointed for the purpose by this Academy. 



Such a committee might consider what record should be 

 made of nationality, and whether some record should not be 

 made of the wife's birth-place, residence and occupation. 



The attention of such a committee, as well as of this associa- 

 tion, may also profitably be directed to the fact that ministers 

 are now required to certify that a marriage has been consum- 

 maiedhy them. The statute, indeed, uses invariably the proper 

 word ^^ solemnize," but the printed form substitutes the word 

 " consummate,'' which could not be properly applied to any act 

 of the minister, and has a special usage in reference to acts 

 of the parties married. 



The writer has been accustomed to correct this error in his 

 own certificate, and now asks that this correction be made in 

 all the authorized forms. It is unworthy of the state of Wis- 



