Read Our Western Legal History Issue
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Western Legal History A Publication of Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society Volume 30, Numbers 1&2 The Women’s Vote: How the West Led the Way WESTERN LEGAL HISTORY THE JOURNAL OF THE NINTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE WOMEN’S VOTE: HOW THE WEST LED THE WAY VOLUME 30, NUMBERS 1&2 2019 A Publication of Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society Western Legal History is published semiannually, in spring and fall, by the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, 125 S. Grand Avenue, Pasadena California 91105, (626) 229-7476. The journal explores, analyzes, and presents the history of law, the legal profession, and the courts, particularly the federal courts, in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawai’i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Western Legal History is sent to members of the NJCHS as well as members of affiliated legal historical societies in the Ninth Circuit. Membership is open to all. Membership dues (individuals and institutions): Patron, $1,000 or more; Steward, $750-$999; Sponsor, $500-$749; Grantor, $250-$499; Sustaining, $100- $249; Advocate, $50-$99; Subscribing (nonmembers of the bench and bar, lawyers in practice fewer than five years, libraries, and academic institutions), $25-$49. Membership dues (law firms and corporations): Founder, $3,000 or more; Patron, $1,000-$2,999; Steward, $750-$999; Sponsor, $500-$749; Grantor, $250-$499. For information regarding membership, back issues of Western Legal History, and other society publications and programs, please write or telephone the editor. POSTMASTER: Please send change of address to: Editor Western Legal History 125 S. Grand Avenue Pasadena, California 91105 Western Legal History disclaims responsibility for statements made by authors and for accuracy of endnotes. Copyright ©2019, Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society ISSN 0896-2189 The Editorial Board welcomes unsolicited manuscripts, books for review, and recommendations for the journal. Manuscripts (three copies, and one disk in Microsoft Word for Windows, if possible) should be sent to the Editor, Western Legal History, 125 S. Grand Avenue, Pasadena, California 91105. Texts, including quotations and endnotes, must be double spaced. Notes must be numbered consecutively and appear in a separate section at the end of the text. Authors are requested to follow the style for citations used in the journal. Manuscripts that are no more than thirty pages in length, not counting notes, charts and tables, and photographs, are preferred. Also preferred are manuscripts not concurrently under consideration by another journal. Whether because of prejudice or custom, writers in earlier times often used language considered strange or offensive today. Because Western Legal History publishes articles that present the historical record as accurately as possible, it occasionally publishes quotations containing such language. The publications of such is not to be construed as representing the attitudes of either the authors or Western Legal History. Communication with the editor is encouraged before submission of any manuscript. At that time, other guidelines for the preparation and publication of an article may be discussed. Consultation about punctuation, grammar, style, and the like is made with the author, although the editor and the Editorial Board are the final arbiters of the article’s acceptance and appearance. Articles published in this journal are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life; Historical Abstracts; the Index to Legal Periodicals; and the Legal Resources Index. A Publication of Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society BOARD OF DIRECTORS RITA M. HAEUSLER, ESQ. Hon. Christina A. Snyder Chair Hon. Sidney R. Thomas DEBORA KRISTENSEN GRASHAM, ESQ. Gail Migdal Title, Esq. Vice Chair Dean A. Ziehl, Esq. SONIA R. MARTIN, ESQ. Treasurer ADVISORY COUNCIL JEFF PORTNOY, ESQ. J. Bruce Alverson, Esq. Treasurer Cathy Catterson, Esq. GARETH T. EVANS, ESQ. A. Marisa Chun, Esq. Immediate Past Chair Hon. Steve Cochran Daniel P. Collins, Esq. Seth Aronson, Esq. Hon. Morrison C. England, Jr. Hon. Stanley Bastian Avalon Fitzgerald, Esq. Hon. Marsha S. Berzon Angel Garganta, Esq. Ryan W. Bounds, Esq. Peter F. Habein, Esq. Jerome L. Braun, Esq. Ernest A. Hoidal, Esq. John Carson, Esq. Hon. Procter R. Hug, Jr. Hon. David O. Carter Robert James, Esq. David S. Casey, Jr., Esq. Hon. Robert J. Johnston Hon. Richard R. Clifton Professor Colin Jones Dale A. Danneman, Esq. Robert D. Lowry, Esq. Robert H. Fairbank, Esq. Sean McAvoy Jeffrey M. Fisher, Esq. Diane M. Meyers, Esq. Margaret G. Foley, Esq. Hon. Randall J. Newsome Donald L. Gaffney, Esq. Robert Pfister, Esq. Gersham Goldstein, Esq. Nora M. Puckett, Esq. Kiry K. Gray Hon. Richard G. Seeborg Hon. Michael Daly Hawkins Joy Shoemaker, M.L.S., J.D. Kenneth N. Klee, Esq. David S. Steuer, Esq. Hon. M. Margaret McKeown Lilian Tsai, Esq. Ron Maroko, Esq. Claire Wong Black, Esq. Hon. Mary H. Murguia Douglas R.Young, Esq. Hon. William H. Orrick, III Meryl L. Young, Esq. Kathleen M. O’Sullivan, Esq. Kelly A. Zusman, Esq. Hon. Virginia A. Phillips Jeffrey R. Portnoy, Esq. BOARD EMERITUS Hon. Manuel L. Real Hon. Christine W. Byrd Heather L. Richardson, Esq. Thomas J. McDermott, Jr., Esq. Hon. Mary M. Schroeder Hon. Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain Marc M. Seltzer, Esq. Hon. Paul G. Rosenblatt Hon. Milan D. Smith, Jr. Robert S. Warren, Esq. A Publication of Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society VOLUME 30 Editor-in-Chief Hon. Michael Daly Hawkins Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Administrative Assistant Laura Ferguson Copy Editor Ninth Circuit Archivist Pamela Marshall Rollins Emerson Editorial Board ARIELA GROSS PETER L. REICH USC Gould School of Law UCLA School of Law ARTHUR D. HELLMAN HARRY N. SCHEIBER University of Pittsburgh School of Law Berkeley Law S. DEBORAH KANG REUEL E. SCHILLER California State University, University of California San Marcos Hastings College of the Law JACQUELYN KASPER HON. G. MURRAY SNOW University of Arizona College of Law United States District Court for the Library (Ret.) District of Arizona SARA MAYEUX Vanderbilt Law School Book Review Editor CHARLES MCCLAIN, JR. University of California Berkeley Law Production Editor ROBYN LIPSKY A Publication of Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society VOLUME 30 INTRODUCTION Michael Daly Hawkins ........................................ 1 HOW THE WOMAN’S VOTE WAS WON IN THE WEST: AN OVERVIEW Rebecca J. Mead ............................................. 5 BREAKIN’ THROUGH: WYOMING’S TRAILBLAZING PATH TO WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE M. Margaret McKeown ....................................... 17 BALANCING ACT: IDAHO’S CAMPAIGN FOR WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE Rebecca Scofield and Katherine G. Aiken .......................... 33 WINNING, LOSING, AND REGAINING THE FRANCHISE: THE LONG ROAD TO VOTING EQUALITY IN WASHINGTON Morgan Christen ............................................. 45 THE LONG OREGON TRAIL TO WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE Susan P. Graber ............................................ 59 WINNING CALIFORNIA: THE 1911 SUFFRAGE VICTORY Gayle Gullett................................................ 71 ARIZONA’S WOMAN SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT Heidi J. Osselaer ............................................. 81 ALASKA NATIVE WOMEN’S LONG ROAD TO SUFFRAGE Morgan Christen ............................................. 89 EVOLVING TOWARD EQUALITY: MONTANA’S WOMAN SUFFRAGE STORY Mary Sheehy Moe ........................................... 101 NEVADA’S CAMPAIGNS FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE Joanne Goodwin ............................................. 115 BOOK REVIEWS ...................................................... 125 MEMBERSHIPS, CONTRIBUTIONS AND GRANTS Michael Daly Hawkins Introduction [I]f anyone should ask me what I think the chief cause of the ex- traordinary prosperity and growing power of this nation, I should answer that it is due to the superiority of their women. —Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)1 Women, we might as well be dogs baying the moon as petition- ers without the right to vote! —Susan B. Anthony, speech of November 16, 18952 This issue of Western Legal History addresses the right to vote, surely one of the most important underpinings of democratic citizenship, but one that was denied to half of Americans in the Declaration of Independence, where Thomas Jefferson’s towering words “all men are created equal” undoubtedly meant white men who owned property. It would remain that way for nearly 150 years, until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, in August 1920. There was, without doubt, a reluctance in many parts of the nation to extend the right to vote to women. But in a number of territories and states in the American West, from Wyoming Territory in 1869 to Nevada and Mon- tana in 1914, the franchise was extended to women prior to the nationwide adoption of the right. This issue focuses on six of those states and two terri- tories, all of which except Wyoming are within the current boundaries of the Ninth U.S. Judicial Circuit. The articles that follow, written by a unique combination of writers from the academy and the bench, explore the events that propelled those states to extend the right to vote to women. The obstacles to women’s suf- frage were substantial and real. Both major political parties opposed the idea. Saloonkeepers and their liquor industry suppliers, correctly anticipat- ing that giving women the right to vote would usher in Prohibition, were ad- amant in their opposition. Some Southerners saw the push for equal suf- frage for women as “the