accused, and to men who have wronged women, judges and
jurors of their own sex are indispensable.

As long as Judge Howe remained on the bench he had women on his
juries.[495] His first term at Cheyenne, after the law was
passed, several women were among the jurors, and they did fully
as well, and exerted quite as good an influence there, as the
women had recently at Laramie City.

The first election under the woman suffrage law was held in
September 1870, for the election of a delegate in congress, and
county officers. There was an exciting canvass, and both parties
applied to the whisky shops, as before, supposing they would
wield the political power of the territory, and that not enough
women would vote to influence the result. The morning of election
came, but did not bring the usual scenes around the polls. A few
women came out early to vote, and the crowd kept entirely out of
sight. There was plenty of drinking and noise at the saloons, but
the men would not remain, after voting, around the polls. It
seemed more like Sunday than election day. Even the negro men and
women voted without objection or disturbance. Quite a number of
women voted during the day, at least in all the larger towns, but
apprehension of a repetition of the scenes of the former
election, and doubt as to the proper course for them to pursue,
kept very many from voting. The result was a great disappointment
all around. The election had passed off with unexpected quiet,
and order had everywhere prevailed. The whisky shops had been
beaten, and their favorite candidate for congress, although he
had spent several thousand dollars to secure an election, was
left out in the cold. I cannot deny myself the pleasure of
quoting at length the following letter of the Rev. D. J. Pierce,
at that time a resident of Laramie City, and a very wealthy man,
to show the powerful influence that was exerted on the mind of a
New England clergyman by that first exhibition of women at the
polls, and as evidence of the singular and beneficial change in
the character of the election, and the conduct of the men:

_Editor Laramie Sentinel:_ I am pleased to notice your
action in printing testimonials of different classes to the
influence of woman suffrage in Wyoming. With the a