higher than that for consent to prostitution. It was urged that the age of consent ought to be advanced to that of legal majority; that girls "have a right to legal protection of their persons, which is more imperative by far than is the protection which every state has recognized as a matter beyond controversy when applied to a girl's property or her ability to make contracts, deeds, and wills, or to her control of herself in any matters which are of importance to her as an individual, and to the state, because she is one of its citizens whose future welfare is a matter of moment to the commonwealth;" and that in respect to her person, as well as regarding property or marriage, she should be protected even against her own will.[680] As a result of the campaign of 1895 alone the age of consent was raised in no less than fifteen states and territories; and in the outset it was significantly pointed out that the "two states in which the age of legal protection for girlhood has been raised to eighteen years are states in which women vote--Wyoming, upon equal terms with men, and Kansas, in municipal elections."[681] A brief summary of the laws of the states and territories regarding the subject under consideration may now be presented. [677] "Age of consent laws, in their usual acceptation, refer to the crime of rape, and designate the age at which a young girl may legally consent to carnal relations with the other sex. Statutes pertaining to rape provide, in varying phrase, for the punishment of 'whoever ravishes and carnally knows a female by force and against her will,' at any age; and also penalties for whoever unlawfully and carnally knows a female child, with or without consent, under a given age."--POWELL, in _Arena_, XI, 192. [678] "In the New York senate, in 1890, a bill was introduced to lower the age of consent from sixteen to fourteen years. It was reported favorably by the senate judiciary committee, but vigorous protests against the proposed retrograde legislation were promptly sent to Albany by the friends of purity, and the disreputable scheme was defeated. It was understood to have originated with Rochester attorneys who sought thus to provide a way of escape for a client, a well-to-do debauchee guilty of despoiling a young girl under the legally protected age of sixteen." A similar attempt, in the house, in 1892, in the interest of the New York brothel-keepers, was barely defeated by calling for the yeas and nays. "In the Kansas senate, in 1889, a bill was introduced and passed to lower the age ... from eighteen to twelve years. The house was flooded with earnest protests, and its judiciary committee reported adversely the disgraceful senate bill."--POWELL, _loc. cit._, 194, 195.