The Hon. John W. Kingman, for four years a Judge of the U. S. Supreme Court of Wyoming, says:
Woman suffrage was inaugurated in 1869 without much discussion, and without any general movement of men or women in its favor. At that time few women voted. At each election since, they have voted in larger numbers, and now nearly all go to the polls. Our women do not attend the caucuses in any considerable numbers, but they generally take an interest in the selection of candidates, and it is very common, in considering the availability of an aspirant for office, to ask, 'How does he stand with the ladies?' Frequently the men set aside certain applicants for office, because their characters would not stand the criticism of women. The women manifest a great deal of independence in their preference for candidates, and have frequently defeated bad nominations. Our best and most cultivated women vote, and vote understandingly and independently, and they can not be bought with whiskey or blinded by party prejudice. They are making themselves felt at the polls, as they do everywhere else in society, by a quiet but effectual discountenancing of the bad, and a helping hand for the good and the true. We have had no trouble from the presence of bad women at the polls. It has been said that the delicate and cultured women would shrink away, and the bold and indelicate come to the front, in public affairs. This we feared; but nothing of the kind has happened. I do not believe that suffrage causes women to neglect their domestic affairs. Certainly, such has not been the case in Wyoming, and I never heard a man complain that his wife was less interested in domestic economy because she had the right to vote and took an interest in making the community respectable. The opposition to woman suffrage at first was pretty bitter. To-day I do not think you could get a dozen respectable men in any locality to oppose it.
In 1895 U. S. Senator Clarence D. Clark wrote as follows to the Constitutional Convention of Utah which was considering a woman suffrage plank:
So far as the operation of the law in this State is concerned, we were so well satisfied, with twenty years' experience under the Territorial government, that it went into our constitution with but one dissenting vote, although many thought that such a section might result in its rejection by Congress. If it does nothing else it fulfils the theory of a true representative government, and in this State, at least, has resulted in none of the evils prophesied. It has not been the fruitful source of family disagreements feared. It has not lowered womanhood. Women do generally take advantage of the right to vote, and vote intelligently. It has been years since we have had trouble at the polls—quiet and order, in my opinion, being due to two causes, the presence of women and our efficient election laws. One important feature I might mention, and that is, in view of the woman vote, no party dare nominate notoriously immoral men, for fear of defeat by that vote. Regarding the adoption of the system in other States I see no reason why its operation should not be generally the same elsewhere as it is with us. It is surely true that after many years' experience, Wyoming would not be content to return to the old limits, as, in our opinion, the absence of ill results is conclusive proof of the wisdom of the proposition.
In 1896 the Hon. H. V. S. Groesbeck, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, thus summed up the results of twenty-seven years' experience:
