The Unmaking of Women’s Suffrage in Washington Territory

The Supreme Court holds with Judge Nash that by the organic act of the Territory the term 'citizen,' as related to the elective franchise, is applicable only to males, and that the legislature overstepped its authority in bestowing the franchise upon women. The woman suffrage law is therefore declared unconstitutional and void. The soundness of this decision will not admit of dispute. From the date of its enactment, the woman suffrage law has been a subject of dissatisfaction and contempt to the great majority of the people in the Territory. By trickery, both political parties were trapped into an insincere and unwilling approval of the woman suffrage principle. The decision of the court will therefore be received with almost universal satisfaction. Woman suffrage has proven a practical failure in Washington Territory. It has accomplished nothing in the way of public or private good. There have been no moral, social or political reforms as a consequence of it. On the other hand, it has made dissension and trouble everywhere. After a fair trial, its most uncompromising opponents are among the women themselves. As a rule, modest and good women have not voted—at least not the second time—while vicious women and women of the coarser class have been vulgarly conspicuous at the polls. The rejection of this law takes Washington Territory from the 'queer list' and removes one of the important practical obstacles to the admission of the Territory into the Union.