December 10
Today is Wyoming Day
1869 Territorial Governor John Campbell signed a bill giving full suffrage and public rights to women in Wyoming. This was the first law passed in the US explicitly granting to women the franchise. The bill provided that: ""Every woman of the age of eighteen years residing in this territory, may, at every election cast her vote; and her right to the elective franchise and to hold office under the election laws of the territory shall be the same of electors." Gov. Campbell's comment, in signing the bill into law, was: "I have the honor to inform the Council that I have approved 'An act to grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the right of Suffrage and to hold office.'"
Critics, or perhaps rather cynics, have sometimes claimed that this served no other purpose other than to raise the number of citizens eligible to vote, and thereby increase the likelihood of early admission as a state, but that view doesn't reflect the early reality of this move. In fact, Wyoming's politicians were notably egalitarian for the time and too women as members of the body politic seriously. During the Territorial period women even served on juries, something that was very unusual in the United States at the time, although they lost this right for a time after statehood.
1869 Territorial school laws goes into effect requiring public schools to be funded by taxation.
1869 Territorial Governor John Campbell signed a bill giving full suffrage and public rights to women in Wyoming. This was the first law passed in the US explicitly granting to women the franchise. The bill provided that: ""Every woman of the age of eighteen years residing in this territory, may, at every election cast her vote; and her right to the elective franchise and to hold office under the election laws of the territory shall be the same of electors." Gov. Campbell's comment, in signing the bill into law, was: "I have the honor to inform the Council that I have approved 'An act to grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the right of Suffrage and to hold office.'"
Critics, or perhaps rather cynics, have sometimes claimed that this served no other purpose other than to raise the number of citizens eligible to vote, and thereby increase the likelihood of early admission as a state, but that view doesn't reflect the early reality of this move. In fact, Wyoming's politicians were notably egalitarian for the time and too women as members of the body politic seriously. During the Territorial period women even served on juries, something that was very unusual in the United States at the time, although they lost this right for a time after statehood.
1869 Territorial school laws goes into effect requiring public schools to be funded by taxation.
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