xt70rx937t9n_493 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4.dao.xml unknown 13.63 Cubic Feet 34 boxes, 2 folders, 3 items In safe - drawer 3 archival material 46m4 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Laura Clay papers Temperance. Women -- Political activity -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- United States -- History. Women -- Suffrage -- Kentucky. Women -- Suffrage -- United States. Woman Suffrage leaflet text Woman Suffrage leaflet 2020 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4/Box_17/Folder_6/Multipage21448.pdf 1889-1895 1895 1889-1895 section false xt70rx937t9n_493 xt70rx937t9n WOMAN SUFFRAGE LEAFLET.

 

 

A convention opposed to equal suffrage
was elected, and framed a constitution
excluding women. A friend of the
present writer talked with many of the
members while the convention was in
session. He says that almost every
lawyer in that body acknowledged, in
private conversation, that the decision
by which women had been disfranchised
was illegal.

Roosevelt a Suffragist.

I believe in women’s rights as much
as in men’s, and, indeed, a little more.
The mother must be more than a head
nurse and housekeeper. She must have
an interest in outside things to keep up
her self respect; and if she loses that
self respect, she loses that of her chil—
dren. No family can become all it
ought to be if the mother does not keep
in touch sufficiently with outside inter—
ests, and with what is going on in the
world, to be an intellectual stimulus to
her children. * * * I have noticed
in women’s colleges the fine type—culti—
vation of the body not neglected in
cultivation of the brain, and both not
developed at the expense of character.
—Theodore Roosevelt.

Abraham Lincoln.

I go for all sharing the privileges of
government who assist in bearing its
burdens, by no means excluding
women. —Abraham Lincoln.

 

Charles Kingsley.

One principal cause of the failure of
so many magnificent schemes, social,
political, religious, which have followed
each other age after age, has been this:
that in almost every case they have ig—
nored the rights and powers of one—
half' the human race, viz., women. I
believe that politics will not go right,
that society will not go right, that re‘
ligion will not go right, that nothing
human will ever go right, except in so
far as woman goes right; and to make
woman go right she must be put in her
place and she must have her rights.—
Charles Kingsley.

Harriet Beecher Stowe.

If the principle on which we founded
our government is true, that taxation
must not be without representation, and
if women hold property and are taxed,
it follows that women should be repre—
sented in the state by their votes. I
think the state can no more afford to
dispense with the votes of women in
its affairs than the family.—Harriet
Beecher Stowe.

Benjamin F. Wade.

Every argument that can be ad-
duced to prove that males should have
the right to vote, applies with equal
force to prove that females should pos-
sess the same right.—Benjamin F.
Wade

 

 

EXTRA LEAFLETS OF THE CASE OF WASHINGTON

Extra Leaflets may be had on application to DR. FANNIE'LEAKE-CUMMINGS, President of
the Washington Equal Suffrage Association, 2925 First Avenue, Seattle, Wash.

Price 30 Cents Per 100, Postpaid

 

 

THE WOMAN’S JOURNAL

A weekly paper, founded l870, by Lucy Stone.

3 Park Street,

Editors, H. B. Blackwell, Alice Stone Blackwell
Boston, Mass.

l'The best source of information upon the woman question that I know."—Clara Barton.
Subscription Price. $l.50 Per Year.

Woman Suffrage Tracts.—Sample set of Woman Suffrage Leaflets (-10 different

kinds), postpaid, 10 cents. Address:

Leaflet Department, Massachusetts Woman’s Suffrage Association,

3 Park Street, Boston, Mass.

EQUAL SUFFRAGE LEAFLET

 

 

The Case of Washington

BY ALICE STONE BLACKWELL.

Women voted in Washington for the greater quiet and order produced by
firsttimein 1884, and were disfranchised l their presence at the polls.

by the Supreme Court in 1887.
Equal suffrage was granted to women

Next came the general election of No-
vember, 1884. Again the newspapers

by the Legislature of WashingtonTerri— were practically unanimous as to the
tory in October, 1883- The women at ‘ result. The Olympia Transcript, which
once began to distinguish themselves was opposed to equal suffrage, said:

there, as they have done in Wyoming
and elsewhere, by voting for the best
man, irrespective of party. The old files
of the Washington newspapers bear
ample evidence to this fact.

The first chance that women had to
vote was at the municipal elections of
July, 1884.

The Seattle Mirror said:

The city election of last Monday was
for more reasons than one the most im-
portant ever held in Seattle. The
presence of women at the voting places
had the effect of preventing the dis—
graceful proceedings usually seen. It
was the first election in the city where
women could vote, and the first where
the gambling and liquor fraternity,
which had so long controlled the mu—
nicipal government to an enormous ex—
tent, suffered defeat.

The Post Intelligencer said:

After the experience of the late elect~
ion it will not do for any one here to say
the women do not want to vote. They
displayed as much interest as the men,
and, it' anything, more. . . . The
result insures Seattle a first class mu-
nicipal administration. It is a warning
to that undesirable class of the commun-
ity who subsist upon the weaknesses
and vices of society that disregard of
law and the decencies of civilization will
not be tolerated. '

Quotations might be multiplied from
the papers of other towns, testifying to
the independent voting of the women,
the large size of their vote, the r'0urtesy
with which they were treated, and the

l

 

The result shows that all parties must
put up good men if they expect to elect
them. They cannot do as they have in
the past—nominate any candidates, and
plefit them by the force of the party
as . .

The Democratic State Journal said:

Anyone could not fail to see that here—
after more attention must be given at
the primaries to select the purest of
material, by both parties, if they would
gain the female vote.

Charles J. Woodbury Visited Washing—
ton about this time. In a letter to the
N. Y. Evening Post, he said:

Whatever may be the vicissitudes
of woman suffrage in Washington Terri—
tory in the future, it should now be put
on record that at the election, Nov. 4,
1884, nine tenths of its adult female
population availed themselves of the
right to vote with a hearty enthusiasm.

. -W 13‘; is-the—result so far?

He goes on to say that he arrived in
Seattle on Sunday, and was surprised at
the quiet and order he found prevailing,
and at the general Sunday closing of the
places of business:

Even the bars of the hotels were
closed; and this was the worst town in
the Territory (except Ainsworth) when
I first saw it. Now its uproarous
theatres, dancing houses, squaw—broth-
els, and Sunday fights are a thing of the
past. Not a gambling house exists.

Women served on the jury, and meted
out the full penalty of the law to gamb—
lers and keepers of disorderly houses.

 

 WOMAN SUFFRAGE LEAFLET.

 

 

The Chief Justice of the Territory at l who was a hard drinker. The Republi—

that time was Hon. Roger S. Greene, a can women would not vote for him, and
cousin of United States Senator Hoar, hewas defeated. Next they nominated
a man of high character and integrity, a man who had for years been openly
and a magistrate celebrated throughout | living with an Indian woman and had a
the Northwest for his resolute and l family of half breed children. Again
courageous resistance to lynch law. In i the Republican women refused to vote
his charge to the grand jury at Port;f0r him, and he was defeated. This
Townsend, August, 1884, Chief Justice ‘ brought the enmity of the Republican
Greene said: l “machine” upon woman suffrage. The
The oppOnents of woman suffrage in i Democratic women showed equal inde~
this Territory are found allied with a ' pendence, and incurred the hostility of
solid phalanx of gamblers, prostitutes, ithe Democratic machine.
pimps and drunkard-makers~a phalanx l . .
composed of all in each of those classes} Not long after, a change 0f adminis-
who know the interest of the class and E tration at Washington led to a change

V0te according to it- iin the Territorial Supreme Court. The
In his charge to another grand jury l newly appointed Chief Justice and a
later, Chief Justice Greene said: ‘majority of the new Judges of the
Twelve terms of court, ladies andlSupreme Court were opposed to equal
gentlemen, I have “OW held, in Whieh suffrage, and were amenable, it is said,

women have served as grand and petit , . .
jurors, and it is certainly a fact beyond to the strong pressure brought to bear

dispute that no other twelve terms so? upon them by all the vicious elements
salutary for restraint of crime havelto secure its repeal. A gambler who

ever been held in this Tertitory. For? had been convicted by a jury composed
fifteen years I have been trying to do1

what a judge ought, but have never till 1 in part of women contested the sentence
the last six months felt underneath and l on the ground that women were not
around me. in the degree that everyilegal voters, and the Supreme Court
311de hista {iglfit t0 f9 ll it, t2}? Utibuobg ; decided that the woman suffrage bill
atat..d°:.;otr:§a:am.:.fh I became it had
law. ‘. been headed “An Act to Amend Section
Gamblers and other bad characters, l SO and SO, Al'tide SO and SO 0f the
finding Washington too hot for them,nl Code,” instead 0f “Ah Act to Enfran—
crossed the border into British Colum- l chise Women.” The Organic ACt 0f
bia in such numbers as caused prominent l the Territory, WhiCh StOOd to it in the
men there to declare that British Co— I place Of a constitution, provided that
lumbia would have to adopt woman 3 every bill must be fully described in its
suffrage too, in self defense. Hon. John title. Nineteen other bills passed by
D. Robson, in introducing a woman suf- l the same Legislature had been headed
frage bill in the Parliament of British: in the same way as the suffrage bill.
Columbia, said: “The women of Wash— i without being therefore declared uncon-
ington are voting all the gamblers and l stitutional, including the bill that auth-
blacklegs out of the Territory, and they i orized the sitting 0f the court WhiCh
are coming over here.” ‘pronounced this decision. But no ac—
Naturallythe vicious element dislikedleount was taken Of that fact. The
“the full and resolute enforcement of l ObjeCt was to. get rid 0f woman Shf‘
law.” The baser sort of politicians l frage; and the vicious elements rejoiced
also disliked the independent voting of greatly.
the women. The Republicans had a But this decision was rendered a good
normal majority in the Territory. But , while after the members of the next
they nominated for a high office a man i biennial Legislature had been elected

WOMAN SUFFRAGE LEAFLET.

 

 

by men and women together; and it did
not invalidate the election, because,
according to law, no member’s election
could be contested after a certain time
had elapsed. When the Legislature
met, in 1888, it re-enacted the suffrage
bill, giving it a full heading, and
strengthening it in every way possible.

Washington was about to be admitted
as a state, and was preparing to hold a
constitutional convention to frame a
state constitution. There was no doubt
that the majority of the women wanted
to vote. Chief Justice Greene estimated
that five-sixths of them had voted at
the last election before they were de-
prived of the right. Two successive
Legislatures elected by men and women
jointly had re-enacted woman suffrage
(for its continuance had been made ai
test question in the choice of the firstl
Legislature for which the women voted, ’
and that Legislature had been careful
to insert the words “he or she” in all
bills relating to the election laws.) It
was admitted on all hands that if the
women were allowed to vote for mem—
bers of the constitutional convention, it
would be impossible to elect a conven-
tion that would wipe out woman suf-
frage.

It was therefore imperative to de-
prive the women of their votes before
the members of the convention were
chosen. A scheme was arranged for
the purpose. On the ground that
she was a woman, the election
officers at a local election refused
the vote of Mrs. Nevada Boomer,
who was opposed to suffrage. They
accepted the votes of all the other
women. She made a test case by bring-
ing suit against them. In the ordinary
course of things, the case would not
have come up till after the election of
the constitutional convention. But cases
for the restoration of personal rights
may be advanced on the docket, and
Mrs. Boomer’s ostensible object was the

 

restoration of her personal rights,

though her real object was to deprive
all women of theirs. Her case was put
forward on the docket and hurried to a
decision.

The Supreme Court this time pro—
nounced the woman suffrage law uncon-
stitutional on the ground that it was
beyond the power of a Territorial Legis—
lature to enfranchise women. The Or-
ganic Act of the Territory said that at
the first Territorial election persons
with certain qualifications should vote,
and at subsequent elections such persons
as the Territorial Legislature might
enfranchise. But the court took the
ground that in giving the Legislature
the right to regulate suffrage, Congress
did not at the time have it specifically
in mind that they might enfranchise
women, and that therefore they could
not do so. The suffragists wanted to
have the case appealed to the Supreme
Court of the United States. If that
court has sustained the decision of the
Washington Supreme Court, it would
have been a “ten-strike” for the oppo—
nents of equal rights, since it' would
have wiped out woman suffrage not only
in Washington, but in Wyoming, and in
all the Territories that had granted full
or partial suffrage to women. But Mrs.
Boomer refused to let the case be ap-
pealed; her friends knew perfectly well
that legally the decision had not a leg
to stand on; and none of the women
who favored suffrage could make a
genuine test case and take it up to the
United States Supreme Court, because
none of them had had their votes re—
fused. It was an adroitly combined
conspiracy to keep the women from be-
ing allowed to vote as to Whether they
should retain the suffrage.

The women themselves being pre-
vented from voting, their friends were
not able to overcome the combined
“machines” of both political parties,
and the intense opposition of all the
vicious and disorderly elements, at that
time pretty large on the Pacific Coast.

 

 THE FIRST FREE STATE.

 

 

also vote it will destroy the family organ-
ization? If so, 1 would ask the senator
how it happens that the family is an insti-
tution coeval with the commencement of
society, and that probably, taking the hu-
man race together from the beginning
down, not one man in five hundred has
ever exercised the right of sufi'rage, and
not one in five thousand for that matter?

MR. REAGAN.—I am well aware, and I
say it with no disrespect to the senator
from New Hampshire, that he has great
respect for short-haired women and long-
haired men. I cannot say thatI have that
respect for them at all. I am. trying to
argue the question upon philosophical
grounds.

Ma. SANDERS, of Montana.—I should
like to ask the senator from Texas a ques-
tion. Ought not the law to be the expres-
sion of the intellectual and moral sense of
the people? Question number one.

Question number two: Is the statement
that “governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed" true or
false?

MR. REAGAN.—Mr. President, if I were
to answer the abstract questions presented
by the senator from Montana as abstractly
as they are asked, the Senate would not be
much wiser or much better satisfied than
it is now.

Senators Morgan, of Alabama, Gray, of
Delaware, and others spoke against the
bill; Senators Platt, of Connecticut,
Spooner, of Wisconsin, and others in its
favor. Senator Platt summed up the situa-
tion as follows:

Woman suffrage has existed in Wyoming
for twenty years. It has not been repealed,
and has proved satisfactory to the people
of that Territory, so much so that they
have incorporated it in their constltution.
If the constitution had been silent upon
the subject, there is no reason to suppose
that it would not, at the very next sess10n
of the Legislature, continue it as one of the
institutions of the State after it should
have been admitted.

After a prolonged debate, the U. S. Sen-
ate voted, 29 to 18, to admit Wyoming,
with the equal rights clause in its consti-
tution.

On July 10, thePresident signed the bill,
and Wyoming became a State—the first
State in the Union to carry out to its logical
conclusions the Republican principle that
“taxation without representation is tyran-

 

ny,” and that “governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the gov-
erned.”

In Wyoming, the news was received with
great rejoicings. On July 23, the celebra-
tion of statehood took place, with impos-
ing ceremonies and unbounded enthu-
siasm. A fine address was made by Mrs.
Therese A. Jenkins. At the capitol, in the
presence of six thousand people, Mrs.
Esther Morris, on behalf of the women of
Wyoming, presented to Gov. Warren a
magnificent State flag, “in grateful re-
cognition of the high privilege of citizen-
ship that has been conferred upon us."

Gov. Warren, receiving the flag, said, in
an eloquent address:

“Wyoming, in her progress, has not for-
gotten the hands and hearts that have
helped advance her to her high position;
and in the adoption of her constitution,
equal suffrage is entrenched so securely
that, it is believed, it will stand forever.
Women of Wyoming, you have builded
well in your past efforts and conduct; and
the men of Wyoming extend heartiest
greetings to you at this time. They ask
you to join them in the future, as in the
past, in securing good government for our
commonwealth.”

Judge Melville C. Brown, who had pre-
sided over the convention that framed the.
constitution of the new State, presented a
copy of it to Mrs. Amelia B. Post, vice-

president for Wyoming of the National- -

American Woman Suffrage Association,
and closed an able speech with the words:

“Far out across the Great American Des-
ert, and beneath the shade of the grand
old Rockies, there springs into existence a
new State, and the watchwords of its peo-
ple are “Justice, Equality.’ Here it was
ordained by the people of Wyoming that
each citizen of the State should enjoy the
same rights guaranteed to every other citi-
zen, whether high or low, black or whlte,
male or female.

“With these new privileges come new
duties and responsibilities. ‘Act well
your part, there all the honor lies.’ Your
past furnishes the highest guarantee for
the future. If you live up to the full
measure of your high privileges, you Will
not only bring happiness to the new State,
but joy to the hearts of the noble women
of other States who are struggling for the
repeal of unequal and unjust laws.”

A full set of \anan Suffrage Tracts (42 ditfercnt kinds) sent postpaid for 10 cents.
Address C. \VILDE, 3 Park Street, Boston, Mass.

VVOMAN SUFFRAGE LEAFLET.

Published Monthly at 3 Park St., Boston, Mass , by the IVational-Amcrican Woman Sull‘ragc Association.

Vol. III. Entered at the Boston l’ost-otlicc as second—class matter. No. 9.

 

Subscription, '25 cts. per annum.

OCTOBER 1, 1890.

Extra copies, 30ets.pcr100, postpaid.

 

THE FIRST FREE STATE.

Full sufi‘rage was extended to the women
of Wyoming by the Legislature of that
Territory in 1869. The results proved so
satisfactory that the law was continued
upon the statute book for twenty years.

In 1889, the constitutional convention
elected to framea constitution for the new
State of Wyoming embodied a woman suf-
frage clause in the constitution by a five-
sixths vote. The constitution containing
this woman suffrage clause was submitted
to the people (the people in this case mean-
ing both men and women), and was ratified
by a very large majority on the popular
vote.

On March 26, 1890, the bill for the ad-
mission of Wyoming was read in the U. S.
House of Representatives. Representa-
tive BAKER, of New York, advocated the
passage of the bill. He said:

Wyoming will, if admitted under the
pending bill, be the forty-third State to
come into the Union, and the thirtieth to
enter since the original federation. With-
in her own borders, both the great political
parties and all interests, public and private,
seem to have united in the memorial which
has been presented to Congress. Wyo-
ming is here asking for her constitutional
right of admission to the Union, and for
representation upon this floor on an equal-
ity with her sister States.

The suffrage article (of her constitution)
provides that “the rights of citizens of the
State of Wyoming to vote-and hold oflice
shall not be denied or abridged on account
of sex,” and that “both male and female
citizens of this State shall equally enjoy
all civil, political, and religious rights and
privileges.”

These constitutional provisions are
novel, and yet not new. As a Territory,
woman suffrage has obtained and existed
for twenty years in their government.
The people of the new State, men, women,
and children, all, irrespective of political
affiliations or religious prejudices, so far
as we are informed, want the same princi-
ple ingrafted into fundamental law. I
honor them for it. He may not be a “bold,
bad man” who will deny them statehood
or argue against their capacity for self-
government because they want to continue
in statehood the principles under which,
as a Territory, they have prospered, but
he does assume to battle against a senti-
ment which steadily through four decades
or more has grown in our land until it has
become a mighty power. Will any man
dare to stand up here before the people of

this country, talking as we do to sixty mil-

 

lions or more of our equals, and assert
that a constitution containing such a prin-
ciple is unrepublican in form? If yea. let
him so declare, and then go hence and be
no more forever, but politically of doubt-
ful sanity.

Representative WASHINGTON, of Ten-
nessee, Opposed the admission of Wyo-
ming with a clause in its constitution
granting equal rights to women, and pre-
dicted, as a blood-curdling possibility, that
some day a lady in a poke-bonnet might
occupy a seat in Congress.

Representative KERR, of Iowa, said:

Mr. Speaker, tne best argument the gen-
tleman from Tennessee has been able to
produce against the sufi‘rage feature of the
Wyoming constitution is his apprehension
that some lady might occupy a seat on this
floor dressed in a particular fashion. It
seems to me that a case must be devoid of
argument when this point is the only rea-
son assigned against such a proposition.
Who shall prescribe who shall be voters in
Wyoming if not the citizens themselves?
That they have admitted the women to
vote is to me a guaranty that avery greatly
needed element to secure purity, human-
ity, and justice in government, as well as
true republicanism, has been introduced
and secured in the fundamental law.

Representative KELLEY, of Kansas, said:

From the remarks of the gentleman from
Tennessee, who recently occupied the floor
on that side of the House, he seems over-
awed with astonishment and even horror
at the idea that some day—n1 far-distant
day, perhaps—a lady or two or three might
occupy seats upon this floor as members
of this House, having the same rights as
other members.“ Now, Mr. Speaker, I see
ladies almost every day in this House.
Ladies are in the galleries. And I some-
times notice that gentlemen on the other
side cast sly glances in that direction; and
while I don’t see any of them with poke—
bonnets on,—~that bonnet which seems so
much to disturb the gentleman from Ten-
nessee,—I have observed gentlemen from
both sides of this House on several occa-
sions “poking” out of the side door, soon
to appear smiling in the gallery, seated be-
tween two ladies. I wish to assure my
Democratic friends that ladies are no more
dangerous on the floor of this House than
they are in the galleries.

Again, Mr. Speaker, in illustrating the
evil results that may follow from the ad-
mission of women on this floor as mem—
bers, he seems to have lost sight entirely
of the fact that the greatest nation on the
face of the earth, save and except the

 

 THE FIRST

1“] {E E STATE .

 

 

United States, is presided over by a wom-
an, and has been for the last fifty years.

In the State of Kansas this is no new
question, and I am free to say that I have
been astounded at some of the remarks
made here to-day in reference to this mat-
ter. Women are occupying to-day and
have for years occupied public Offices, and
have been eligible to oflice in that State.
Many Of them are county officers to-day,
county court clerks, registers of deeds,
county superintendents of public instruc-
tion; and they make the best officers we
have.

MR. PICKLER.—Has it unsexed them?

MR. KELLEY.—No, sir. It does not
hurt their looks; if such a thing were pos-
sible, I think it makes them better looking.
The assistant attorney-general of the State
of Kansas to-day is a woman, and she has
entire control of the legal department of
the State of Kansas, because the attorney-
geueral of the State of Kansas, who, if
present, would have that control, is absent
from the State, and has been for some
time; and in his absence the assistant at-
torney-general takes charge. Nobody
ever complained that she, as a lawyer,
did not conduct the legal part of that
State properly. And I have no doubt that,
if this proposition should become more
popular, and should extend from some of
those progressive States of the West and
Northwest even as far as the State of
Tennessee, and if it should become neces-
sary for the women of that State to vote
in making a selection of Representatives
in Congress, they would be just as wise in
their selection as were the women in
Wyoming. and I have no doubt that the
State of Tennessee would be represented
upon this floor by gentlemen or ladies just
as fit to represent it as the State of Wyom-
ing will be when she is represented by our
worthy friend, Judge Carey.

Mr. Speaker, I am reminded that just
opposite me are three or four good-looking
gentlemen from Georgia; and if the State
of Georgia should ever determine to send
two or three good-looking women here to
occupy those seats, sitting as I do right
Opposite to them, I should not be at all
frightened. [Laughter.] I should be
perfectly willing to stand it, and I have no
doubt the Speaker could stand it, and I
have no doubt the gentlemen themselves
could stand it.

MR. CLEMENTS. —The question is
whether the ladies could stand it.

MR. KELLEY.—Well, there is no law in
Georgia, I hOpe, which would compel
people, men or women, to come to Con-
gress unless they desired to. We do not
have any such laws in Kansas, at any
rate.

Representative MOREY, of Ohio, said:

Our friends on the other side seem to
get into a panic when anything is said
about the enlargement of the right of
suffrage. And one distinguished member,
my friend from Tennessee, seems to be
stampeded by the idea that some Repre-
sentative from the State of Wyoming may
take a seat beside him clothed in a poke
bonnet. [Laughter.] That is the kind
of argument advanced in support of the

propositions of the Democratic minority
of this committee.

A fear is expressed that women, if
permitted to vote, will seek the enact-
ment of laws “in their own interest and
against that of man.” It is assumed that
the exercise Of the right Of suffrage by
woman will change the relations of the
sexes. There never was a greater mistake.
The race is homogeneous, and will never
be divided in its aims and desires. It is
assumed that woman desires the ballot to
legislate for woman. This, too, is a
grievous mistake. She desires the ballot
that she may legislate for the race, for
her sons and her daughters, for her hus-
band aud herself.

A simple answer to the question of the
minority, “Why has the male sex alone
made the laws?” is that the female sex
has forever been denied the right to help
make the laws by which they are gov-
erned.

To attribute this to their lack of physi—
cal courage is neither just nor manly. I
have read in the Congressional Record the
autobiography of my friend from Illinois
[Mn Springer], and from that I learn that,
while the great war for the Union was
testing the patriotism and valor of the
American people, my friend was taking
lessons in statesmanship at home. What
were the women of the country doing
then? Anna Ella Carroll, moved by the
loftiest patriotism, her genius quickened
by her love of country, was the friend and
counsellor of the great Lincoln, and lighted
his way in the gloom of that awful period.
Who has not read of Dorothea Dix and
the army of noble nurses; of Elizabeth
Blackwell and the Sanitary Commission?
Who has not read of Clara Barton, whose
chosen work was on the field of battle,
caring for the wounded, burying the dead?
For four years she endured the rigors and
was exposed to-the dangers of soldier life.
Shrinking from no danger, she stood side
by side with the surgeons on the field of
battle, exposed to shot and shell, her
clothing pierced by balls and torn by shot.
There was Mother Bickerdyke, who was a
strong woman in her prime during the
dark hour of the nation. She gave her
entire time for four years to the service
of the country, laboring in hospitals, go-
ing out on the battlefield after the contest
was over, and viewing those scenes of
carnage that make the heart grow sick,
lifting wounded soldiers in her brave arms
to bear them to places Of safety, at the
risk ther life. And there were thou-
sands of other brave and loyal women
who, in camp and hospital, at home and
at the front, and even on the field of bat-
tle, didanoble and heroic part in the pros-
ecution of the great war for union and
free government. By what right does my
friend Mr. Springer, who prepared this
minority report, challenge the right of
the women of the country to enjoy the
highest and dearest right that can be ex-
ercised under the government which they
did and sacrificed so much to save?

HON. JOSEPH M. CAREY, the delegate
from Wyoming, said:

 

/

,4

I do not believe that, under any condiyk/

THE FIRST FREE STATE.

 

 

tions, the people of Wyoming, not even if
granted half a hundred of constitutional
conventions, could obtain a better result
for themselves than the constitution with
which they ask to be incorporated into
the Union.

The people selected from their best men
to make it. These were selected without
much regard to their party affiliations.
They had the best guide to govern them,
the experience of the people for a period
of twenty years. A young people, with-
out the prejudice of Old communities to
influence them, they incorporated in the
constitution the results of the best thought
of those who, in this progressive age, have
made constitutional law life’s study.

The provision most to be commended is
that clause that makes no discrimination
on account of sex, so far as political rights
are concerned. The people of Wyoming,
after a practice and experience during
their entire territorial life, hesitated not
one moment on this subject. They were
substantially of one mind. The manner
in which woman has exercised her right
of elective franchise has left few men in-
deed who would deprive her Of the privi-
lege, if it were in their power to do so.

All criticisms of this constitution, by the
press and people have been in words of
commendation.

The Senate Committee on Territories
says of the constitution:

“Your committee find much to praise and
nothing to condemn in the constitution which
has been adopted, and believe that the highest
and best interes1s of its people, as well as the
strength and glory of the Republic, will be sub-
served by its immediate admission as a State.”

Woman suffrage is not a new question.
It is not repugnant to the Constitution of
the United States. It is not unrepublican.

In New Jersey, under the Articles of
Confederation, women had the right of
sufl‘rage. In England, woman votes in
municipal matters; in Scotland and Wales
and in the Isle of Wight; and in Ontario,
on the northern portio