CHAPTER LXXII.
WYOMING.[471]
It is said that a contented people or a happy life is one without a history. The cause of woman suffrage in Wyoming has not been marked by agitation or strife, and for that reason there is no struggle to record, as is the case in all other States. In its story Mrs. Esther Morris must ever be considered the heroine. A native of New York, she joined her husband and three sons in 1869 at South Pass, then the chief town of Wyoming. She was a strong advocate of the enfranchisement of women and succeeded in enlisting the co-operation of Col. William H. Bright, president of the first Legislative Council of the Territory, which that very year passed a bill conferring on women the full elective franchise and the right to hold all offices. Gov. John A. Campbell was in some doubt as to signing it, but a body of women in Cheyenne, headed by Mrs. Amalia Post (wife of Morton E. Post, delegate to Congress), went to his residence and announced their intention of staying until he did so. A vacancy occurring soon afterward in the office of Justice of the Peace at South Pass, the Governor appointed Mrs. Morris on petition of the county attorney and commissioners. She tried between thirty and forty cases and none was appealed to a higher court.[472]
In 1871 a bill to repeal this woman suffrage law was passed by the Legislature and vetoed by Governor Campbell. An attempt to pass it over his veto failed. No proposition to abolish it ever was made in the Legislature thereafter.
In 1884, fifteen years after women had first voted in Wyoming, U. S. District Attorney Melville C. Brown, at the request of Miss Susan B. Anthony, sent to the National Association an extended résumé of the status of women suffrage in the Territory, to which he himself had been opposed in 1869. It expressed throughout the most emphatic approval without any qualifications. Some of the statements were as follows:
Women have exercised their elective franchise, at first not very generally but of late with universality, and with such good judgment and modesty as to commend it to the men of all parties who hold the good of the Territory in high esteem.... It has been stated that the best women do not avail themselves of the privilege. This is maliciously false.... The foolish claim has also been made that the influence of the ballot upon women is bad. This is not true. It is impossible that a woman's character can be contaminated in associating with men for a few minutes in going to the polls any more than it would be in going to church or to places of amusement. On the other hand women are benefited and improved by the ballot.... The fact is, Wyoming has the noblest and best women in the world because they have more privileges and know better how to use them.
To conclude I will say: Woman suffrage is a settled fact here, and will endure as long as the Territory. It has accomplished much good; it has harmed no one; therefore we are all in favor, and none can be found to raise a voice against it.
In the convention called the first Monday of September, 1889, to prepare a constitution for admission as a State, this was the first clause presented for consideration:
The right of citizens of the State of Wyoming to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. Both male and female citizens of this State shall enjoy all civil, political and religious rights and privileges.