as
passed, it had had woman suffrage, and I was appealed to by a
great many citizens all over the United States to keep it out of
the Union, so far as my action could do so, until it restored the
right of women to vote which had been taken away under a decision
of its own courts--taken away, as I thought, unjustly; for I did
not consider that decision good law. The senator from
Massachusetts, Mr. Hoar, interrogated me when I was advocating
the admission of Washington as to why we did not incorporate into
that enabling act some language that should undo the wrong which
had been done by the Supreme Court of the Territory and restore
to women the right of voting. I said then, as I say now, that I
think this is a matter which belongs to the Territory; and I am
surprised that gentlemen who are so devoted to home rule as a
sacred right which should never be interfered with in this
republic, should not be willing to allow to a Territory, when it
asks for admission, the right to determine whether women should
or should not be permitted to vote by the constitution of the
proposed State.... Why should we, the Congress of the United
States, stand here and say to that Territory, where women have
enjoyed the right of voting for twenty years, and nobody arises
to gainsay it or to intimate that they have not exercised the
right wisely, why should we stand here and say: "Keep out of the
Union; we will let no community, no Territory, in here which does
not deprive its women of the right they have enjoyed while in a
Territorial condition"?

After every possible device to strike out the obnoxious clause had
been exhausted, the bill to admit Wyoming as a State was passed on
June 27, 1890, by 29 ayes, 18 noes, 37 absent.[479] Although Henry W.
Blair of New Hampshire and Henry M. Teller of Colorado interposed
remarks showing a thorough belief in the enfranchisement of women,
there was no formal argument in its behalf, it being generally
understood that all Republicans would vote for the bill in order to
admit a Republican State, and a number did so who were not in favor of
woman suffrage.

When the people of Wyoming met at Cheyenne, July 23, to celebrate
their Statehood, by Gov. Francis E. Warren sat Mrs. Amalia Post,
president of the Woman Suffrage Association. The first and principal
oration of the day was made by