1869 Wyoming Suffrage Act Almost repealed in 1871
The passage of the Wyoming Suffrage Act was widely hailed as a major step in the national struggle for female suffrage. After it passed in 1869, hundreds of women voted in the territorial election of 1870.
The vote to pass the act was not unanimous despite all the legislators being members of the Democratic Party. Those legislators who opposed the 1869 act did not rest after it became law. In 1871 they would try to repeal the Suffrage Act and they almost succeeded.
Reasons for repeal
There were reasons that repeal was on the mind of those all-Democratic legislators. They were, no doubt, unhappy that despite giving women the right to vote, many women voted for Republicans in the 1871 election. For example, in Laramie 93 women voted and 64 voted for Republicans.
Additionally, there was still hard animus by Democrats and some Republicans against women voting. Some members of the 1869 bloc who voted against the Suffrage Act were returned to the 1871 legislature and led the repeal effort. The leading newspaper in the territory, the Cheyenne Leader, bolstered that effort.
The governor answers
Yet there was widespread praise in the territory for the Suffrage Act. The other two important papers in the territory, the Laramie Sentinel and the Wyoming Tribune were in favor. And it had support of the governor. Speaking of voting and jury duty, in his address to open the 1871 session of the territorial legislature, Republican Governor John Campbell gave an endorsement of the act. “It is simple justice to say that the women entering for the first time in the history of the country upon these new and untried duties, have conducted themselves in every respect with as much tact, sound judgment, and good sense, as men.”
The legislature takes action
Despite his support, the legislature soon moved to repeal the Suffrage Act. The Cheyenne Leader newspaper reported that on November 13, C. E. Castle, an attorney from Uinta County, announced he would introduce “a bill for an act to repeal the act granting women the right of suffrage in Wyoming Territory.” Castle introduced House Bill Number 4 on the 16th and it was “read’ for the first and second time.
Albany County representative Melville C. Brown tried to delay the progress of the bill. He recommended further consideration by having the bill sent to one of the legislature’s committees. His attempt failed.
After some further review the bill was “read” for a third time and at 2 p.m. on November 17th the House of Representatives voted to pass the bill by a vote of nine to three. All Democrats present voted for the bill. Three Republicans opposed it and one voted for passage. The Albany County delegation split is vote with Democrat T.J. Dayton voting for the repeal and Republicans Brown and Ora Haley opposed.
Unfortunately, there is no record of the debates pertaining to the bill in the House of Representatives. But it is significant that Democrat Ben Sheeks, who was adamantly opposed to the Suffrage Act when he was a Sweetwater County Representative in 1869, was the powerful Speaker of the House for the 1871 session.
The bill was then sent to the Council (what we now call the Senate) the morning of the 18th. Within a week the influential Cheyenne Leader newspaper under the editorship of Nathan Baker ran a front-page editorial arguing for the repeal effort. He stated the Suffrage Act was, “repugnant to the wishes of the majority of refined and intelligent women of the land.”
Supporters of the Suffrage Act response fail
Albany County women mounted efforts supporting the continuance of the Suffrage Act as did Albany County’s representative in the Council, Stephen Wheeler Downey. While the bill was being considered in the Council, Downey spoke at length in favor of female suffrage on November 24th.
His key passage read, “If there is any one thing which more than another has given positiveness to the reputation and character of Wyoming, it is her early recognition and favorable consideration of female suffrage.”
The next day the Laramie Sentinel reported a group of women were circulating a petition arguing against the repeal of the Suffrage Act. Headed up by Mrs. Eliza Stewart Boyd, 29 prominent women, including Louisa Swain, presented their petition to the House of Representatives and the Council stating that their right to vote should not be terminated.
The repeal bill was given its third and final reading in the Council on November 27th and was passed on the 29th and sent to Governor John Campbell for his signature. The vote was five to four with both members from Albany County, Republican Downey and Peoples Party J. E. Gates, voting against the repeal effort.
Veto by Governor Campbell
Governor Campbell took considerable time before he issued his veto of the bill on December 9th. The Laramie Sentinel noted that the veto was wise as it would have denied, “a large and best portion of our citizens of an absolute right.”
Governor Campbell was more effusive. His veto message took up a full ten pages in the House Journal and was reprinted in full in the Wyoming Tribune. At the end of his message he wrote that, at its root, the Suffrage Act must be retained because the Declaration of Independence stated that a government “derives all its just powers from the consent of the governed.” Clearly, he reasoned, that included women.
The fight, however, was not over. Editor Baker continued to push the repeal effort. He ran a long front page editorial on December 11th heaping scorn on female suffrage stating, “The abolition of the useless statute conferring suffrage upon women, will be regretted by none of the sex, save those emalous (sic) of an unenviable notoriety in the ranks of the suffrage shriekers, the unsexed and uncultivated, we had almost said unchaste of the Territory.”
The Suffrage Act survives
The majority in the House of Representatives must have agreed with Baker. They voted to override the governor’s veto by the same margin with which the repeal bill passed originally. In the Council the margin was razor thin, but the governor’s veto was upheld by one vote. Both Albany County members voted to continue to allow women to vote. Had either voted the other way, the Suffrage Act would have been repealed.
A serious threat to the Wyoming Suffrage Act came from the U.S. Congress in 1890 when Wyoming Territory petitioned to become a state. In 1887 Congress had revoked women’s suffrage in Utah Territory and there was fear that Congress would require it to be removed from the proposed Wyoming constitution. But by a close vote of 139 to 127, Wyoming did achieve statehood in 1890 as the 44th state, with its women’s Suffrage Act intact.
Researchers beware
The otherwise generally authoritative Wyoming “Blue Book,” an official history of Wyoming by the Wyoming State Archives, has a short timeline of the events described above. Unfortunately, it incorrectly states Downey voted for repeal. The Council Journal of the second session of the Wyoming Territory Legislative Assembly shows he voted against the repeal bill. The timeline also has several incorrect dates of legislative action.
By Kim Viner
Source: Wikipedia
Caption: John Allen Campbell (1835-1880) Ohio native and Civil War veteran was appointed by President Grant to be the first Governor of Wyoming Territory. He arrived in Cheyenne in May of 1869, and within two years had the responsibility of accepting or vetoing the legislature’s bill to rescind women’s suffrage in the Territory. He chose to veto; his courageous decision withstood a legislative attempt to override in 1871, thus assuring continuous women’s suffrage in Wyoming. He was reappointed Territorial Governor in 1873. In 1875 he left the Territory to take a position with the U.S. State Department. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.