[479] A telegram announcing that President Harrison had signed the bill was handed to Miss Anthony while she was addressing a large audience at Madison, S. D., during the woman suffrage campaign in that State, and those who were present say, "She spoke like one inspired."
By request of Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone, officers of the National W. S. A., the woman suffrage clubs of the entire country celebrated on the Fourth of July the admission into the Union of the first State with the full franchise for women, and an address from Mrs. Stanton was read—Wyoming the First Free State for Women.
[480] From 1876 to 1883 Edgar Wilson Nye (Bill Nye) was editor of the Laramie Boomerang, in which he published the following as the result of his eight years' observation of woman's voting:
"Female suffrage, I may safely and seriously assert, according to the best judgment of the majority in Wyoming Territory, is an unqualified success. An effort to abolish it would be at once hooted down. Its principal opposition comes from those who do not know anything about it. I do not hesitate to say that Wyoming is justly proud because it has thus early recognized woman and given her a chance to be heard. While she does not seek to hold office or act as juror, she votes quietly, intelligently and pretty independently. Moreover, she does not recognize the machine at all, seldom goes to caucuses, votes for men who are satisfactory, regardless of the ticket, and thus scares the daylights out of rings and machines."
[481] See [Appendix—Testimony from Woman Suffrage States].
[482] When the attention of a distinguished jurist of Wyoming was called to these laws he said the question never had been raised, but there would be no objection to changing them.