Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/1167

Most of these Governors were Republicans. Hon. N. L. Andrews (Democrat), Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives, said in 1879:

I came to this Territory in the fall of 1871, with the strongest prejudice possible against woman suffrage. The more I have seen of it, the less my objections have been realized, and the more it has commended itself to my judgment and good opinion. Under all my observations it has worked well, and has been productive of much good. The women use the ballot with more independence and discrimination in regard to the qualifications of candidates than men do. If the ballot in the hand of woman compels political parties to place their best men in nomination, this, in and of itself, is a sufficient reason for sustaining woman suffrage.

Ex-Chief Justice Fisher, of Cheyenne, said in 1883:

I wish I could show the people who are so wonderfully exercised on the subject of female suffrage just how it works. The women watch the nominating conventions, and if the Republicans put a bad man on their ticket and the Democrats a good one, the Republican women do not hesitate a moment in scratching off the bad and substituting the good. It is just so with the Democratic women. I have seen the effects of female suffrage, and instead of being a means of encouragment to fraud and corruption, it tends greatly to purify elections and give better government.

In 1884 Attorney-General M. C. Brown said in a public letter:

My prejudices were formerly all against woman suffrage, but they have gradually given way since it became an established fact in Wyoming. My observation, extending over a period of fifteen years, satisfies me of its entire justice and propriety. Impartial observation has also satisfied me that in the use of the ballot women exercise fully as good judgment as men, and in some particulars are more discriminating, as, for instance, on questions of morals.

At another time he said:

I have been asked if women make good jurors, and I answer by saying, that so far as I have observed their conduct on juries, as a lawyer, I find but little fault with them. . . . . They do not reason like men upon the evidence, but, being possessed of a higher quality of intellectuality, i. e., keen perceptions, they see the truth of the thing at a glance. Their minds once settled, neither sophistry, logic, rhetoric, pleading nor tears will move them from their purpose. A guilty person never escapes a just punishment when tried by women juries. The effect of woman suffrage upon the people of Wyoming has been good. It has been said by one man that open, flagrant acts of bribery are commonly practiced at the polls in Wyoming, and this statement is made to show that the effect of woman suffrage has not been good. The statement is not true. In the last election there were in Cheyenne large sums Of money expended to influence the result, and votes were bought on the streets in an open and shameless manner. As U. S. Attorney for the Territory, it became my duty to investigate this matter before a grand jury composed of men. The revelations before the jury were astonishing and many cases of bribery were clearly proven; but while a majority of those composing the jury were men of the highest integrity, there were so many members who had probably taken part in the same unlawful transactions that no indictment could be obtained. The circumstances attending this election were phenomenal. It would be unjust to the women, however, if I should fail to add that, while it was clearly proven that many men sold their votes, it was strikingly apparent that few if any women, even of the vilest class, were guilty of the same misconduct.