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tuan Suffrage
GENC
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NO 17 1914
HOW SIX STATES WON
WOMAN SUFFRAGE

BY
IDA HUSTED HARPER
PRICE, Two Copies, FIVE CENTS
NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION
505 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY
1896
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MICHIGAN
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• VAN DE ME
THE U
·
How Six States Won Woman Suffrage
By
IDA HUSTED HARPER
Author of 'Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony," "History of Woman Suffrage," Etc.
When on November 8, 1910, the State of Washington,
by a very large majority vote of its electors, gave the
complete franchise to women citizens, the subject of
woman suffrage passed from the stage of academic discus-
sion to that of a live, practical question; and when on
October 10, 1911, California fully enfranchised the
women of that State it became one of the political issues
of the day. This fact was evident at once in the attitude
of the press, which in its news reports gave woman suf-
frage equal if not superior place to the referendum, recall
and other important constitutional amendments which
were passed upon at this recent California election. It
was equally noticeable in the editorials, especially of pa-
pers heretofore opposed, such, for instance, as the New
York Tribune, which said: "Now that Washington, with
1,142,000 population, and California, with 2,377,000, have
shown their desire to put the political equality idea into
practice, the pressure behind it will become more acute
and the larger and older States will have to take more
serious notice of its existence."
The experiment heretofore in the United States has
3
·
been made in the four comparatively new and sparsely
settled States of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho,
where women are greatly outnumbered by men and no
large cities exist with their complicated political and social
problems. While it is true that human nature is the same
everywhere, yet it must be admitted that in these four
States there has not been an opportunity for such a real
test of woman suffrage as would be necessary to influence
the older and more thickly populated ones. Denver, with
a little less than 214,000 inhabitants, has afforded the most
conspicuous example for study.
Now that the question of woman suffrage is to receive
more attention it may be of interest to examine its history
in the United States up to date. The very first demand
for it was made by women of Eastern States, which will
be the last to grant it-Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan
B. Anthony, of New York; Lucretia Mott, of Phila-
delphia; Lucy Stone, of Boston, and a score or two more
of the most distinguished women of sixty years ago. The
first recognition of the principle by any State was made by
progressive Kansas, which came into the Union in 1861
with school suffrage for women in its Constitution. No
further advance was made until 1869, when the first Legis-
lative Council was in session after the organization of
Wyoming as a Territory. Mrs. Esther Morris, who with
her husband had gone out from New York as a pioneer,
appealed to the president of the council, Col. William H.
Bright, for a bill enfranchising women. She was sustained
by his wife, and he succeeded in having the bill passed.
The Council was Democratic and it hoped to embarrass
the Republican Governor, John A. Campbell, whom it ex-
4
pected to veto the bill. On the contrary, he signed it;
and when two years later the Council repealed it he vetoed
the repeal. The Council was unable to pass it over his
veto, and no effort to abolish woman suffrage was ever
again made in Wyoming. Mrs. Morris was appointed
Justice of the Peace, and of the nearly forty cases she tried
none ever was appealed to a higher court. Women sat on
juries from the beginning and have continued to fill va-
rious offices down to the present day.
In 1889 a convention composed entirely of men met to
form a Constitution for Statehood, and after twenty years'
experience they adopted unanimously as its first clause
"equal political rights for all male and female citizens.'
The Constitution was ratified by more than a three-fourths
majority of the people and sent to Congress for approval.
That body, always hostile to the enfranchisement of
women, fought for three days to have this first clause elim-
inated and the Territorial Delegate telegraphed to Wyom-
ing that it looked as if this would have to be done. The
Legislature, which was in session, wired back: "We will
remain out of the Union a hundred years rather than come
in without woman suffrage." The same struggle took
place in the United States Senate, and pages of the Con-
gressional Record were filled with awful Senatorial
prophecies as to what would happen to the country if
Wyoming should come into the Union with women voters.
After days of oratory they were obliged to face the ca-
lamity, and President Harrison signed the bill admitting
the new State in June, 1890. Thus Wyoming became the
first Commonwealth in the world's history to grant to
women the same rights in the government that men pos-
C
5
""
sessed. The official statistics show that about 90 per cent.
of the women qualified cast their votes at the annual elec-
tions. Not one man of prominence has ever voiced publicly
the slightest opposition, while volumes of favorable testi-
mony from those eminent in all departments of the State's
activities have been published. Again and again the Leg-
islature has adopted resolutions expressing the highest
approval of woman suffrage, urging other States to
adopt it and calling upon Congress to submit an amend-
ment of the National Constitution to the various legis-
latures.
Beginning with Michigan in 1875, there was a tendency
on the part of legislatures to confer some form of school
suffrage on women, and this has continued until in about
half of the States they have a school vote of some kind.
In certain places it is for trustees, in others for appropria-
tions, but nowhere have they as much of a voice in school
affairs as men have. In some States they must be mothers
of children of school age, in others heads of families, and
in others taxpayers. They must register the same as if
they were going to vote an entire ticket, and on election
day they must go to the general polls; so the school vote
cast by women must not be regarded as conclusive evi-
dence of the number who would exercise the full suffrage.
In 1887 Kansas again came to the front by granting
to women municipal suffrage, which its Legislature had
constitutional power to do, and they have exercised it
ever since then, to the distinct advantage of the city gov-
erments, according to the general belief. There has been,
however, much legislative juggling to prevent their hav-
ing a vote on officials who are connected with the adminis-
6
tration of the liquor prohibition laws, and they are pre-
vented from voting on judge and marshal of the City
Court, justices of the peace and constables, while the
police judge, city marshal and chief of police are ap-
pointed, except in the small places. Liquor sellers, when
indicted, simply take an appeal to a higher court, over
which women have no jurisdiction. A constitutional
amendment to give women the complete franchise was
submitted to the voters in 1894, but was defeated largely
because of the peculiar political condition-the Repub-
licans trying to regain the State from the control of the
Populists, and both parties willing to sacrifice anything
that seemed to stand in the way. An amendment has
now been once more submitted, to be voted on in Novem-
ber, 1912, and as there is really a strong public sentiment
in favor of it, the prospect is good for its winning unless
political exigencies again call for a sacrifice of the women.
In examining the patchwork of women's civil, legal
and political rights and privileges in the United States,
we shall find that in Montana, since 1887, women tax-
payers can vote on questions of special taxation, also for
school trustees; since 1894 in Iowa all women can vote
on issuing bonds or increasing the tax levy; since 1898 in
Minnesota for library trustees (in addition to school
officers since 1875). In 1901 the Legislature of New
York gave to taxpaying women of towns and villages a
vote upon propositions for special taxation, and in 1910
the law was amended to include the issuing of bonds.
After the four acts of the Legislature and three decisions
of the highest courts, consuming twenty years of time, the
right was secured for women of the towns and villages
7
who have children of school age or are assessed for over
$50, to vote at district school meetings! Even with this
small privilege women have carried many elections, and
always for the improvement of the schools and villages.
The charters of seven or eight third-class cities have con-
ferred school suffrage on women, and possibly a dozen
have given the taxpayer's franchise.
In 1908 Michigan, through a new Constitution, gave
taxpaying women a vote on all questions of special taxa-
tion and the granting of franchises. This was in response
to a petition from 275,000 of the leading women for the
full suffrage. Most of the fragmentary voting privileges
enumerated above have been given by legislatures merely
to get rid of the importunities of the women for a chance
to obtain the complete franchise. These crumbs are about
all the actual suffrage a legislature has power to give.
That of Michigan in 1893 conferred the municipal fran-
chise on women, just as that of Kansas had done, and the
Supreme Court at once declared that it had exceeded its
constitutional power. This would probably be the deci-
sion in most of the States. The women do not want to be
enfranchised in this piecemeal fashion; they have almost
entirely ceased asking for it, and it is a case—to quote the
"antis"—of having "the suffrage thrust upon them."
It must be remembered that in no State can the Leg-
islature confer the complete franchise on women. That
can be done only through amending the Constitution by
taking the word "male" out of its qualifications for voting,
and this requires the consent of a majority of the electors.
We come now to the second State which has fully en-
franchised women-Colorado. When it made its Consti-
8
1
tution for Statehood in 1876 it refused the entreaties of
the women to provide in this for their enfranchisement, but
it gave them school suffrage. The curious provision was
made that the Legislature of the new State might at any
time, by a majority, instead of the two-thirds required for
amendments, enact a law to extend the suffrage without
amending the Constitution, but the law must be approved
by the majority of the voters; and it was ordered that such
a law should be submitted at the first election after the
State came into the Union. This was done in 1877, and
the men, glorying in their own newly acquired rights,
defeated the measure by a vote of two to one. The women
were discouraged and the matter rested till the early '90s,
when there were many more of them, and they began to
organize their forces. In 1893 the Legislature was in en-
tire control of the Populists and a woman suffrage bill
was again sent to the voters. Men, too, had progressed
during these years, and at the November election it re-
ceived a majority in favor of 6,347.
The women entered at once upon their new duties, and
the official records show that during all the past eighteen
years they have voted in quite as large a proportion as
men. They have evinced no especial desire for office, but
more than a dozen have been elected to the Legislature
and scores to the various county offices. The office of
State Superintendent of Public Instruction has always
been filled by a woman. They serve on State boards and
commissions and are eligible to jury service. The testi-
mony in favor of the way they have used their ballot is
overwhelming and from the highest sources-justices of
the Supreme Court, Governors, presidents of colleges,
9
clergymen, editors. Not one Colorado man or woman of
prominence has ever given public expression to a deroga-
tory word. The strongest proof of the success of woman
suffrage in this State, however, came ten years after it had
been in operation. The suffrage clause in the Constitu-
tion permitted immigrants to vote on their first papers
and six months' residence. An amendment was submitted
in 1903 requiring a year's residence and using the words
"he or she. It was adopted by 18,000 majority, and it
safely intrenched woman suffrage in the Constitution of
the State. With the Populist party eliminated the vote
for it was three times as large as before it had been tried.
If this increase was due to the women, it showed they ap-
preciated their voting power and wished to make it secure;
if it was due to men, it proved they were satisfied. In
either case the result was decisive.
در
In 1895, two years after the Colorado victory, a conven-
tion of Utah men assembled to make a Constitution for
Statehood. The Legislature in 1870 had given full suf-
frage to women-as it had power to do in a Territory-
and they had used it largely until 1887. That year Con-
gress, through some inscrutable logic, took away the fran-
chise from all the women, Gentile as well as Mormon, to
stop the practice of polygamy! This convention was com-
posed of both Gentiles and Mormons, and after a thorough
discussion a strong woman suffrage plank was put into
the new Constitution. At the November election it was
submitted to Gentile and Mormon voters and carried by
28,618 ayes, 2,687 noes. This was the answer of Utah
men after an experience with woman suffrage of seventeen
years. This Constitution received no objection by Con-
10
gress. The women of this State were far better organized
and worked much harder for their political freedom than
those of any other up to that time. They have used their
franchise generally and wisely; no complaints or criticisms
have ever come from Utah to the contrary. Women have
been sent to both houses of the Legislature, have filled
State, county and city offices, served on many boards and
gone as delegates to Presidential conventions.
The story of Idaho is short and there is no great
struggle for the ballot to record. It was admitted into
the Union in 1890. Before and after that year Mrs.
Abigail Scott Duniway, the pioneer suffragist of Oregon,
had canvassed Territory and State and appealed to the
Legislature and constitutional convention.
She was
strongly supported by individual men and women of
Idaho, but there was no organized effort until 1893. The
Republicans were in full control of the Legislature in 1895
and the resolution to submit an amendment was almost
unanimous. The next year Republican, Democratic,
Populist and Free Silver party conventions endorsed it
and it was carried at the November election by a vote
of almost two to one. At the next election three women
were sent to the Legislature; one State Superintendent
of Instruction, fifteen county superintendents, four county
treasurers elected. This proportion has been kept up and
there have been a number of deputy sheriffs elected. There
is nothing but the highest testimony as to the part of
women in the politics of the State. They constitute 42 per
cent. of the population and by the official statistics they
cast 40 per cent. of the vote in Boise, the capital, and over
35 per cent. in the rest of the State. The hardships of
11
getting to the polls through the snow and over the moun-
tains can hardly be described. Women sometimes ride
twenty miles on horseback to vote.
After this gain of four States in six years by the suf-
fragists the opponents took active measures to prevent the
submission of the question in other States. In the few
cases where this was done the combination of corpora-
tions, liquor interests and party "machines" was impossi-
ble to overcome. The domination of politics by these
forces was so complete that there was no chance for any
moral questions, and nothing was left but the slow process
of educating public sentiment to demand that the voice
of women should be heard in this wilderness. Then came
the great "insurgent" movement in the Western States
and, as the direct result, the submitting of a woman suf-
frage amendment in 1910 by almost unanimous vote of
the Washington Legislature. Here again there had been
practical experience. In 1883 the Territorial Legislature
gave to women the full rights of the ballot, and at the
Spring eelction and again in the Autumn they cast one-
fourth of the votes, although there were less than one-
third as many women as men in the Territory. During
the three and a half years that they possessed the suffrage
the official returns several times showed a larger percent-
age of women than of men voting, even with all the
physical handicaps of these pioneer days. In 1886, some
question of constitutionality having arisen, the Legisla-
ture strengthened the Act. In 1887 the vicious elements
secured a court verdict that the bill was not properly
titled, and the Legislature passed it a third time perfect
in every respect.
GE
12
A convention was about to prepare a constitution for
Statehood and these elements were determined it should
not include woman suffrage. It was arranged that at the
Spring election of 1889 the vote of a certain saloon-
keeper's wife should be refused. Her case was rushed
through to the Supreme Court, and two out of three
members decided that the equal suffrage law was void
because a Territorial Legislature had no right to extend
the suffrage! The very Act under which Washington
was organized specifically gave it this right, and under
a similar Act women had voted twenty-one years in the
Territory of Wyoming and seventeen in that of Utah.
This decision is only matched by that of the Dred Scott
case in 1857. The women were illegally disfranchised,
they were excluded from the new Constitution, and all
they could obtain was the submission that year of woman
suffrage as a separate question. They were not them-
selves allowed to vote on it, and it was said to be defeated
by over 19,000. Nine years later, in 1898, the women
summoned courage to make another campaign, and then
the majority against them was announced to be consid-
erably less than 10,000. Years afterward a man who had
taken part in them stated publicly that the most barefaced
frauds were committed, and that the amendment really
had been carried.
In 1910 came the political revolution in Washington,
where the voters threw off the "machine" yoke and honest
men of all parties secured a free election and a fair count.
The women made the ablest campaign for the suffrage
ever known, with the splendid result that it was carried
in every county in the State and received a majority of
18
nearly three to one-the largest victory ever achieved.
The way in which they registered by the tens of thousands
in Seattle the following month, "recalled" the Mayor,
turned out the Council and chief of police and regen-
erated the city-and later performed the same service for
Tacoma-this is of too recent date to need extended men-
tion. It advanced the cause of woman suffrage through-
out the whole country and across the ocean on either side.
The first results were seen in California, which in the
State at large had been swept clean of its corrupt political
forces by the great wave of insurgency. The press repre-
sentatives who had been going to Sacramento for years
said they never had seen so able, sincere and upright a
body of men as the legislators who submitted the reform
amendments, all of which were adopted at the recent
election, including woman suffrage. The women remem-
bered with anguish of spirit the magnificent campaign
they had made in 1896, only to be betrayed and sold by
the political leaders. With largely augmented numbers
and full of faith in the new order they made the fight, but
it required the decent men of the whole State to over-
come the corrupt vote of San Francisco and Oakland.
Now in a State that has been in the Union over sixty
years, and in several big cities, we shall have the supreme
test of woman suffrage.
NEW YORK CITY.
14
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