Last
week, Dana filled you in on her experiences as a liberal woman in the “Equality
State.” So, I thought perhaps I might add to her experience by explaining the
importance of women’s rights in our state history. If you are a historian in
the state of Wyoming, you cannot escape the issue. In fact, it is perhaps the
most important distinction between us and the rest of the American West. No, we
are not the “Cowboy State,” as some maintain….we are the “Equality State.” So,
without further ado, let’s look at the story behind the nickname.
THE SUFFRAGE BILL
It’s
May 7, 1869, and thirty-three year old John Campbell, a bachelor and former
officer in the Union army arrives in Cheyenne to take up his post as governor
of the new territory of Wyoming. He’s joined by Edward M. Lee, another bachelor
who has been appointed by President Grant to serve as territorial secretary.
Since both men are single, there’s no worry about them being preoccupied with
concerns about their wives and potential families. They can do the hard, rugged
work of bringing civilization to the wild frontier.
None of
them would have thought at the time that their tenures would be marked by one
of the greatest advancement in women’s rights in American history.
At this
point, I should point out that the authority on this subject used to be T. A.
Larson, who literally wrote the book on Wyoming History. If you read Larson, you might think the same of the other
members of the territorial government.
At the
time that the first session of the legislature met in Cheyenne in September
1869, the ratio of men-to-women in Wyoming was somewhere around 6 to 1! And
with towns like Laramie, Rawlins, and Rock Springs literally being defined as “hell
on wheels” towns, it wouldn’t have been a stretch to expect the legislators to
resemble the ruckus nature of their constituents.
To be
fair, the legislature WAS all men, all white, and all Democrat.
But,
beyond that, the legislature did something unexpected during its first session.
In early December it passed a bill proposed by William Bright of South Pass
City granting women the right to vote and hold office! Governor Campbell signed
the bill on December 6, giving Wyoming bragging rights as the first place
ANYWHERE in the United States to grant such a privilege, and earning us the
nickname “the Equality State.”
WHY DID IT HAPPEN?
Ever since then, historians have debated exactly WHY it happened.
T. A. Larson believed he had the answer.
1.) Legislators wanted to bring
women to the territory! Families bring civilization, the theory goes, and
women are the glue that holds the family together. Ergo, we need women to have
an incentive to come to this rugged landscape and make a go at it!
If
this was the reason why, it didn’t work out like they wanted. Women did not
flock to Wyoming in droves after the passage of the suffrage bill.
2.) Legislators were influenced by famous women’s suffragettes. Anna
Dickinson gave a speech in Cheyenne on September 24, and Redelia Bates spoke in
the same town on November 5—just a week before Bright introduced the suffrage
bill.
Maybe
this was partially true. Both women spoke in the hall where the House of
Representatives met, and during a time when the legislators might possibly have
attended.
3.) It was all a big joke!
Yep!
Larson suggested that it was a farce. The day that Bright introduced the bill, the
men in the legislature were proposing ridiculous amendments to suggest that
government wastes the people’s time and money. Some believed that the suffrage
bill was proposed in this vein, but that it accidentally passed! To be fair,
William Bright denied that he meant the bill as a joke. And Governor Campbell,
who signed it, certainly didn’t see it that way!
MY OWN THEORY
Now, to
be fair, there’s nothing wrong with these proposed theories. Larson had evidence
to support each of them. But he left one possible reason out, and I think it’s
a glaring omission!
I think that the women’s suffrage bill was
politically motivated.
When
Wyomingites went to the polls in September 1869, they chose an all Democratic
legislature. While we want to give the men who helped make this monumental occasion
the benefit of the doubt, their political affiliation really cannot be ignored.
In January
1865, the House of Representatives passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the
United States Constitution (ratified that December). One year later, it passed
the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified in July 1868). These acts ended slavery, and
then granted citizenship to the four million former slaves. They also made the
Republican Party the party of freedom and equality!
The
Democratic Party, in contrast, had become known nationally as the party of
traitors! Every Senator and Congressman who had left the congress when the
South seceded had been a Democrat, and every time a Democrat ran for national
office during Reconstruction he was trounced by Republicans who claimed their
party was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of boys in the
late war.
But
then the Republicans “fumbled the ball.” In February 1869 Congress passed the
Fifteenth Amendment, which was meant to give all citizens the
federally-protected right to vote. However, the final version of this act only
granted the right to men. Women were
excluded for any number of reasons. The feeling of betrayal was palpable among
female advocates of equality. Until then, they had been united with men who
advocated equality, regardless of race or
sex. Now, they broke away from their former male colleagues and created a
uniquely women’s suffrage movement.
I
believe, then, that Democrats in the Wyoming Territorial Legislature—which was
seated, I might add, only months after the betrayal of women in the fifteenth
amendment–saw an opportunity! They could get on the “equality” bandwagon by
taking up this issue. If enough new territories, which would eventually become
states, did likewise, then Democrats would earn the thanks and respect of an
entirely new electorate that might get them back into power in Washington.
After
all that trouble, the end of the story might be the most humorous part! Starting
the next year, 1870, women began serving on juries and holding public office.
Esther Hobart Morris of South Pass City became the first woman in all of the
United States to hold an elected office—Justice of the Peace. These female
jurists, and this female justice, began convicting men in these
rough-and-tumble “hell on wheels” towns to the harshest sentences possible
under the law. In essence, women were literally civilizing the wild frontier!
The
icing on the cake, though, was the elections in September 1870. Women went to
the polls for the first time….and voted Republican!
For
those Democratic men in the legislature, this was too much! When the
legislature met again in late 1871, it nearly ended this great experiment in
democracy by repealing the women’s suffrage bill.
And this is where Governor Campbell became the unexpected savior of Women’s Rights. Even though his party (Republican) had essentially betrayed women with the Fifteenth Amendment, he personally chose not to penalize them for voting for his party (as the Democrats were trying to do), and vetoed the Democrat’s repeal bill. The Democrats failed to override Campbell’s veto, and women’s suffrage was here to stay.
IN CONCLUSION:
Women’s
rights became a central part of Wyoming’s existence in the American Union. We
led the way, and other western states followed. In fact, prior to the passage
of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919, the only state east of the Rocky Mountains
to grant suffrage to women was Kansas! The West had made its mark on American
History, and Wyoming had led the way.
To be
fair, the measure did not bring more women to Wyoming, and the rough-and-tumble
nature of some parts of Wyoming did not settle down right away (sometime, I’ll
relate the story of the Johnson County War and the notorious acts of the
vigilante Tom Horn). But women would eventually have a role to play in society.
It only remains for today’s Wyoming women to assert the freedoms and privileges first given to them over one-hundred-and-fifty years ago.
— m.a.n.
