“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” — John Adams
In March 1770, a group of British soldiers fired into a rebellious crowd of Boston colonists, killing five civilians. John Adams, a lawyer who steadfastly believed in the right to counsel, was asked to defend the redcoats when everyone else refused. In the trial, Adams claimed that the soldiers were victims of a mob — “if an assault was made to endanger their lives, the law is clear, they had a right to kill in their own defence [sic]” — and had fired their muskets in self defense. He uttered the quote “facts are stubborn things …” while making his case to the jury, and the strategy worked: The Captain and six of his soldiers were found innocent, with only two convicted of manslaughter.
Meet the ‘pursuer of nubile young females’ who helped pass Arizona’s 1864 abortion law
The Arizona Supreme Court has decided the law is still relevant. So let’s talk about the guy who led the body that passed it.
Perspective by Monica HesseColumnist|Follow authorFollow
April 10, 2024 at 7:53 p.m. EDT
Listen
Share
CommentAdd to your saved stories
Save
The time has come to reflect on the life and times — especially the times — of William Claude Jones.
Jones was a “prevaricator, a poet, a politician and the pursuer of nubile young females,” according to a 1990 article published in the Journal of Arizona History, which appears to be the most comprehensive biographical report published on the life of the 19th-century rogue.
His pursuit of such nubility began with a marriage to Sarah Freeman, who bore him two children in the 1840s, when Jones would have been in his 20s or early 30s. He was a sitting member of the Missouri state legislature at the time, but his family followed him to Arkansas and then Texas as he searched for more prominent government appointments. In 1854, President Franklin Pierce eventually named him U.S. attorney for the New Mexico territory, and it was hereabout that Jones’s first wife filed for divorce.
His next wife was a girl whose name was believed to be Maria v. del Refugio, writes L. Boyd Finch, the author of the journal article. New Mexico’s delegate to Washington, Miguel Otero, was bothered by the union. He “declared that the bride was twelve years old,” Finch writes, “and that Jones had ‘abducted’ her.” Otero petitioned President James Buchanan to fire Jones for the moral failing, but Jones resigned instead.
No matter! The mid-19th century was, by any standard you or I would recognize, a hideous place for women. The predatory relationship did not end Jones’s political career; he merely moved farther west, to the Arizona territory. There, Jones supported secession from the Southern states in the impending Civil War. He also landed upon his third wife, Caroline Stephens, who was 15 years old. Claude, by this time, was around 50.
Ah, well. They were married for only a year, anyway, because in 1865, Finch writes, Jones “left Caroline. She never saw or heard from him again.”
He had boarded a train for California, and then a boat for Hawaii, where he again entered local politics, winning a seat in the kingdom’s lower house. By 1868, a local girl named MaeMae Kailihao — “reportedly a princess from a noble family” — was pregnant with his child. She was 14.
Jones and Kailihao married and had several children together until she died at the age of 28 in 1881. Then Jones wed for a fifth time, a woman named Mary Akina — age unknown — only to file for divorce two years later. Shortly after that, Jones died on the island of Maui.
Finch, Jones’s biographer, is careful to say that there is a lot about W. Claude Jones’s life that has been lost to time. We know very little about his early upbringing, or how much he might have exaggerated some of the military exploits he was known to boast about. We also, it almost goes without saying, know very little about his wives, their inner lives, and what they thought of their unions and the times they lived in.
By now you are probably wondering why in God’s name I am writing about this lecherous caricature of a man — a man whose compatriots in the 19th century recognized that he was problematic.
Here’s why:
While Jones lived in Arizona, he was elected to represent Tucson in the 1st Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly. And then, when that legislature convened in 1864, he was elected speaker of the House.
And it was that legislature — the one Jones presided over in 1864, after he had already abandoned his first wife, and married a 12-year-old and was just weeks away from marrying a 15-year-old, though still a few years away from marrying a 14-year-old — it was that legislature that passed a law reading, “Every person who shall administer or cause to be administered or taken, any medicinal substances, or shall use or cause to be used any instruments whatever, with the intention to procure the miscarriage of any woman then being with child, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than two years nor more than five years.”
And it was that piece of legislation that, earlier this week, was reinstated as law of the land in Arizona. It represents a near-total ban on abortion in the state. The state’s Supreme Court voted 4-2 that the 160-year-old law, put into place nearly five decades before Arizona was a state, should supersede the previous rule, which guarded the right to an abortion up to 15 weeks’ gestation. The new — and by new, I mean very old — law is scheduled to go into effect in two weeks’ time.
William Claude Jones sauntered into the wide expanse of a Southwestern territory more than 150 years ago, and this man’s morals are now the benchmark for the reproductive rights of the 7 million people who live in Arizona. Good night.
We are getting closer to the day that a good many people in our nation are going to have to put up or shut up. If it does not happen before election day it will happen on election day and if the outcome is like it was in 2020 then we will see. If a civil war breaks out because the losers cannot deal with the legal result of an election then as they take to the streets to show their displeasure let them reap what they will sow. If that means a goodly number of them do not go home at the end of the day, so be it.
If mass arrests are the result as with J6 then let these misinformed people put up with being shown what can really happen in a society that has no mercy for those that disagree. Loss of rights, property, and expectation of a future that isn’t bleak. Sounds like too much, maybe it is but your dear leader has the same idea for those that do not agree with him or fall in line.
This nation had a civilized society that allowed for all to speak their mind and express their views. Not today we have become as open minded as the Taliban, there is only one view to be held and that is the one that the most belligerent leader presents.
Do not express your opinion or you may lose your job, and soon that expression of choice may cost you your life. Look at the more restrictive legislation that is being passed in what are known as the RED states. Everyday they come up with another rule or law that is just beyond reason. The law to not allow workers to take a drink break when they are working in the heat, let us push that to the legislative floor and say they can not bring drinks into the room or leave until an adjournment has been called. The tired old men in those rooms will start dropping like flies and that just might be a bonus to the state of Florida. Another opinion expressed that goes against the leadership.
What will it take to convince people that you do not turn against what has been provided for you. Yes there have been lapses and will be again, but the farmers need to review who passed legislation to help them and then stop voting for the opposing party. State governments need to stop acting like naughty children and think of the people instead of who did not fill the oval office this time around.
This issue that seems to be getting the most attention is abortion. Many states have challenged and won the right to seek this assistance if needed, and since it is mostly an issue for women it is hard to allow male dominated courts and legislation to make those choices. They think they are the protectors of life, or so they say, but that claim is hard to believe when it comes with the repeated comments of “We know best” and yet we are never there when needed. The number of births that have occurred from reported rape cases only proves that no understanding of or care of womens health or feelings has ever been incorporated into the decisions these men have made.
There has been legislation that allows corporations the ability to not pay for insurance for birth control or abortion on religious grounds. There are religions that allow for or even require these procedures and yet if you follow the laws that have been put in place no consideration for any faith other than Christian is being considered. We are a diverse society and far more people are deciding to be classed as non-religious. Is it possible that the dictates of religion are more than most of our society wants to put up with? Even the most rigid of faiths can not seem to make decisions that are consistent and yet their spokesman keeps making comments and establishing policy. Believe as you wish but even the most ardent person of prayer has produced proof that they have received an answer. Again men dominated in the field of religion just as they do in law and government and war, sports and numbers held in prison for making bad decisions.
Methuselah, a bristlecone pine hidden within California’s Inyo National Forest, takes its name from the Bible’s longest-living figure, though it put down roots some 2,700 years before the birth of Jesus. Nestled within California’s White Mountains, the nearly 4,800-year-old tree lives within a grove of fellow bristlecones that may reach around 5,000 years of age. That long life span isn’t because of their location — the Inyo National Forest is known for being a hostile environment for plant life, combining high altitude with extreme temperatures that only the most persistent lifeforms can endure. Bristlecone pines grow slowly, an estimated inch per century, in effect making these resilient trees defenseless against vandalism and over-trafficking (one reason the U.S. Forest Service gives for not publicizing Methuselah’s exact location). The Guinness Book of World Records currently considers Methuselah the oldest living individual tree in the
I have read “How to make friends and influence people”, “Atomic Habits”, “7 habits of highly successful people “ multiple times and there my others that I can’t list off the top of my head. All these books reinforce habits and sometimes identify bad habits that I wasn’t aware I was habitually doing. Nothing better than a good book for brain food.
Perspective by 
Esoteric Meandering Shouting Into the Void 
You must be logged in to post a comment.