Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/819

746 That the women of Wyoming value as highly the political franchise, and as generally exercise it, as do the men of the territory.

That being more helpless, more dependent and more in need of the protection of good laws and good government than are men, they naturally use the power put into their hands to secure these results.

That they are controlled more by principle and less by party ties than men, and generally cast their votes for the best candidates and the best measures.

That while women in this territory frequently vote contrary to their husbands, we have never heard of a case where the family ties or domestic relations were disturbed thereby, and we believe that among the pioneers of the West there is more honor and manhood than to abuse a wife because she does not think with her husband about politics or religion.

We have never seen any of the evil results growing out of woman suffrage which we have heard predicted for it by its opponents. On the contrary, its results have been only good, and that continually. Our elections have come to be conducted as quietly, orderly and civilly as our religious meetings, or any of our social gatherings, and the best men are generally selected to make and enforce our laws. We have long ago generally come to the conclusion that woman's influence is as wholesome and as much needed in the government of the State as in the government of the family. We do not know of a respectable woman in the territory who objects to or neglects to use her political power, and we do not know of a decent man in the territory who wishes it abolished, or who is not even glad to have woman's help in our government.

Our laws were never respected or enforced, and crime was never punished, or life or property protected until we had woman's help in the jury box and at the polls, and we unhesitatingly say here at home that we do not believe a man can be found who wishes to see her deprived of voice and power, unless it is the one "who fears not God nor regards man," who wants to pursue a life of vice or crime, and consequently fears woman's influence and power in the government. We assert further that the anonymous scribblers who write slanders on our women and our territory to the eastern press, are either fools, who know nothing about what they write, or else belong to that class of whom the poet says:

We took some pains to track up and find out the author of one of the articles against woman suffrage to which our attention was called, and found him working on the streets of Cheyenne, with a ball and chain to his leg. We think he was probably an average specimen of these writers. And, finally, we challenge residents in Wyoming who disagree with the foregoing sentiments, and who endorse the vile slanders to which we refer, to come out over their own signature and in their own local papers and take issue with us, and our columns shall be freely opened to them.

There are some obvious inferences to be drawn and some rather remarkable lessons to be learned, from the foregoing narrative. In the first place, the responsibilities of self government, with the necessity of making their own laws, was delegated to a people, strangers to each other, with very little experience or knowledge in such matters, and composed of various nationalities, with a very large percentage of the criminal classes. It is a matter of surprise that they should have so soon settled themselves into an orderly community, where all the rights of person and property are well protected, and as carefully guarded and fully respected as in any of our old eastern commonwealths. It is a still greater surprise that a legislature selected by such a constituency, under such circumstances as characterized our first election, and composed of such men as were in fact elected, should have been able to enact a body of laws con-