The Senate Floor Fight Over Washington Women's Votes

In the United States Senate, a heated debate emerged regarding the admission of Washington Territory as a state and the status of female suffrage. Senators argued over the precedent of Congressional intervention. One Senator expressed his position: 'I do not understand that the result of the pending amendment is to deny to the citizens of the new State of Washington the right to prescribe the qualifications of its voters. On the contrary, it is simply to establish the fact that that power belongs to the people of the new State, and not to Congress.'

Another voice in the chamber challenged the logic of the territory’s existing laws, noting: 'A woman twenty-one years of age, married or unmarried, is entitled to the right of suffrage in that Territory... yet when you come to look at the naturalization laws of the United States, it is not necessary that a woman should be naturalized to give her all the rights of citizenship.' The debate touched upon the broader philosophy of gender roles, with one opponent warning: 'You put a woman out of her sphere, unsex her, put upon her shoulders the burden of a man’s duty, and put into her hands the instrument of a man’s power, and you have got a being who has lost caste and character.' Despite the sharp opposition, advocates continued to assert that the sovereignty of the incoming state must reside with its people.