CHAPTER LXVI.
UTAH.[441]
To write the history of woman suffrage in Utah one must turn backward to 1870, when the Legislature of the Territory passed a bill conferring the franchise upon women, to which acting-Governor S. A. Mann affixed his signature February 12. From that time women voted at all elections, while some of them took a practical interest in public matters and acted as delegates to political conventions and members of Territorial and county committees.
The first attempt to elect a woman to any important office was made in Salt Lake City at the county convention of 1878, when Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells was nominated for treasurer. She received the vote of the entire delegation, but the statute including the word "male" was held to debar women from holding political offices. A bill was presented to the next Legislature with petitions numerously signed asking that this word be erased from the statutes, which was passed. Gov. George W. Emory, however, refused to sign it, and though other Legislatures passed similar bills by unanimous vote, none ever received his signature or that of any succeeding governor.
In June, 1871, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B. Anthony, the president and vice-president-at-large of the National Woman Suffrage Association, stopped at Salt Lake City on their way to the Pacific Coast and met many of the prominent men and women.
In 1872 the Woman's Exponent was established, and it is impossible to estimate the advantage this little paper gave to the women of this far western Territory. From its first issue it was the champion of the suffrage cause, and by exchanging with women's papers of the United States and England it brought news of women in all parts of the world to those of Utah. They also were thoroughly organized in the National Woman's Relief Society, a charitable and philanthropic body which stood for reform and progress in all directions. Through such an organization it was always comparatively easy to promote any specific object or work. The Hon. George Q. Cannon, Utah's delegate in the '70's, coming from a Territory where women had the ballot, interested himself in the suffrage question before Congress. He thus became acquainted with the prominent leaders of the movement, who went to Washington every winter and who manifested much interest in the women afar off in possession of the rights which they themselves had been so long and zealously advocating without apparent results. Among these were Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker and others of national reputation.
Women were appointed as representatives from Utah by the National Suffrage Association, and the correspondence between its officers and Mrs. Wells, who had been made a member of their Advisory Committee and vice-president for the Territory, as well as the fact that the women of Utah were so progressive on the suffrage question and had sent large petitions asking for the passage of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution to enfranchise all women, resulted in an invitation for her to attend its annual convention at Washington, in January, 1879. Mrs. Wells was accompanied by Mrs. Zina Young Williams and they were cordially welcomed by Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. This was a valuable experience for these women, as, even though they had the right of suffrage, there was much to learn from the great leaders who had been laboring in the cause of woman's enfranchisement for more than thirty years. They were invited to address the convention, and selected with others to go before Congressional committees and the President of the United States, as well as to present important matters to the Lady of the White House. The kindness which they received from Mrs. Hayes and other noted women always will remain a pleasant memory of that first visit to the national capitol. On their return home they took up the subject of the ballot more energetically in its general sense than ever before through public speaking and writing.
During the seventeen years, from 1870 to 1887, that the women of Utah enjoyed the privilege of the ballot several attempts were made to deprive them of it. In 1880 a case came before the Supreme Court of the Territory on a mandamus requiring the assessor and registrar to erase the names of Emmeline B. Wells, Maria M. Blythe and Cornelia Paddock from the registration list, also the names of all other women before a certain specified date, but the court decided in favor of the defendants.
In the spring of 1882 a convention was held to prepare a constitution and urge Congress to admit Utah as a State. Three women were elected—Mrs. Sarah M. Kimball, Mrs. Elizabeth Howard and Mrs. Wells—and took part in framing this constitution, and their work was as satisfactory as that of the male members. Although this was a new departure, it caused no friction whatever and was good political discipline for the women, especially in parliamentary law and usage.
This year another case was brought, before the Third District Court, to test the validity of the statute conferring the elective franchise upon the women of the Territory. A registrar of Salt Lake City refused to place the names of women upon the list of voters, and Mrs. Florence L. Westcott asked for a writ compelling him to administer the oath, enter her name, etc. The case was called for argument Sept. 14, 1882, Chief Justice James A. Hunter on the bench, and able lawyers were employed on both sides of the question. The decision sustained the Legislative Act of 1870 under which women voted. Associate Justice Emerson agreed with Judge Hunter, and Associate Justice Twiss acknowledged the validity of the law, but insisted that women should be taxpayers to entitle them to the right. This test case decided all others and women continued to vote until the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Law, in March, 1887. During this period women gained much political experience in practical matters, and their association with men acquainted with affairs of State, in council and on committees gave them a still wider knowledge of the manipulation of public affairs.