The Romantic Politics of the Frontier
When Congressional candidate Charley Voorhees fell in love with a woman outside the Northwest, the local women took it as a personal insult—and voted him out of office.
The dispatches from Washington territory say that Charley Voorhees, son of Senator Dan Voorhees, has been defeated for Congress from that territory. The dispatches, however, do not tell the whole story. Charley Voorhees has been the delegate in Congress from that distant territory for four years. He went to the Northwest ten years ago from his home in Indiana, and soon became a leader in democratic ranks. He is a young, good-looking, brainy fellow, and a bachelor. Last summer, while at his old home in Indiana he fell in love with a pretty young lady, and they became engaged to be married. When he went back to Washington territory the report of his love affair had gone in advance of him, and he found it had not made him any friends. The women of the territory were dead against him. He was going out of Washington to seek a wife. They fought his election from the very start, and they are a great power. They have beaten him simply because he failed to select his future wife from among the rosy-cheeked girls of the great Northwest.
“The women of the territory were dead against him. He was going out of Washington to seek a wife. They fought his election from the very start, and they are a great power.”
In 1883, Washington Territory granted women the right to vote, a right they exercised aggressively until the Territorial Supreme Court struck it down in 1887. This account, while flavored by the era's patronizing tone toward women's political agency, captures a moment when women voters proved they were a force to be reckoned with—and were punished legally for it shortly thereafter.
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