TERRITORIES, UNITED STATES. 



TEXAS. 



715 



Tho assessed value of tho property in the 



Ti -i-ritory in 1H<) was iJ7,sj:{,-_>;jit. Tho present 



-in ir is Kd \vard S. S:il..iin.ii. A delegate 



tigress was choson at the last election, 



which occurred on the first Monday i June. 



The total v..!.- raM \vai 0,203, of which, Se- 



lucius (iarliclde I Republican) received 3,409, 



or a majority of 735. 



\\Yn\uN.i. -The principal matter of interest 

 in Wyoming during the year has boon the ex- 

 orcise for the lirst time of tho right of voting 

 and sitting on juries by women. A grand ju- 

 ry consisting of men and women was empan- 

 elled at Laramio City on the 7th of March. In 

 his opening address to tho jury, Chief-Justice 

 J. II. Howe said: 



Ladiet and Gentlemen of the Grand Jury : It is an 

 innovation and a groat novelty to BOO, as wo do to- 

 dny, ladies summoned to serve a* jurors. The ex- 

 t.'ii<ion of the political franchise is a subject that is 

 agitating the whole country. I have never taken an 

 active part in the discussion, but have long seen that 

 woman was a victim to the vices, crimes, and immo- 

 ralities of man, with no power to protect and defend 

 herself from these evils. I have long felt that such 

 powers of protection should be conferred on woman, 

 and it has fallen to our lot here to act as pioneers in 

 this movement and to test tho question. The eyes 

 of the whole world are to-day fixed upon this jury of 

 Albany County. There is not the slightest impro- 

 priety in any lady occupying this position, and I wish 

 to assure you that the fullest protection of the court 

 shall be accorded to you. It would bo a most shame- 

 ful scandal that in our temples of justice and in our 

 courts of law any thing should be permitted which the 

 most sensitive lady might not with propriety hear 

 and witness ; and here let me add that it will be a 

 sorry day for any man who shall so far forget the 

 courtesy due and paid by every American gentleman 

 to every American lady, as oven by word or act to en- 

 deavor to deter you from tho exercise of these rights, 

 with which the law has invested you. I will con- 

 clude with the remark that this is a question for you to 

 decide for yourselves. No man has any right to in- 

 terfere. It seems to me to be eminently proper for 

 women to sit upon grand juries, which will give them 

 tho best possible opportunities to aid in suppressing 

 tho dens of infamy which curse tho country. I shall 

 be glad of your assistance in the accomplishment of 

 this object. I do not make these remarks from any 

 distrust of the gentlemen of Albany County ; on the 

 contrary, I am exceedingly pleased and gratified with 

 the indications of intelligence, love of law and good 

 order, and the gentlemanly deportment, which I see 

 manifested here. 



On dismissing the jury, Justice Howe Said: 

 To those ladies who are members of tho grand 

 iury, the Court also deems it but justice to say that 

 by your intelligent, faithful, and conscientious dis- 

 charge of duty, as well as by your great propriety of 

 conduct, you have realized the just expectations of 

 those who saw fit to confer upon you tho ri^ht to 

 participate in the administration of justice. If 1'uturo 

 grand juries in this county shall follow tho example 

 you have set, assurance will bo thereby given to all. 

 that crime and immorality will no longer be winked 

 at, but all offenders will oe brought to justice, and 

 that the law and tho courts may safely be reliod upon 

 for the protection of the people. 



In writing of tho matter afterward, tho same 

 judge said: 



With all my prejudices against tho policy, I am 

 under conscientious obligations to say that these 

 women acquitted themselves with such dignity, deco- 



rum, propriety of conduct, and intelligence, auto win 



tin- admiration of every jair-miii'l<-<l '-itizcn <>( Wy- 

 oming. They were careful, painittaking, iiit<-lli^--Mt, 

 :-ri. -niiuuH. They were firm un<l r> Dilute for 

 the right OH eHtublinhc'l i>y the law and the tcntirnony. 

 Tlit-ir verdicts w:ro right, and, after three or four 

 criminal trials, tho lawyers engaged In defending per- 

 sons aerii-i-,l ! crime began to avail thenine.lv. > of 

 tho right of peremptory challenge to get rid of tho 

 women jurors, who were too much in favor of enfor- 

 cing tho laws and punishing crime to Milt the i>r 

 of their clients! Aftor the grand jury had been in 

 ne-Mon two days, tin- .luncc-lioio.- keepers, gun 

 and demi-monde, fled out of the city in dismay, to es- 

 cape the indictment of women grand jurors ! In 

 short, I have never, in twenty-five years of constant 

 experience in the courts of the country, seen nioro 

 faithful, intelligent, and resolutely honest grand and 

 petit juries than these. 



At the election, which occurred on the 7th 

 of September, the right of suffrage was very 

 generally exercised by the women. W. T. 

 Jones, the Republican candidate for Congress, 

 was elected by a majority of 1GO votes, though 

 at tho preceding election tho Democratic ma- 

 jority was upward of 1,200. At Cheyenne 

 ladies were nominated by the Republicans for 

 the offices of county clerk and school superin- 

 tendent, but they were defeated with the rest 

 of the local ticket, though one of them re- 

 ceived several votes more than any of her male 

 associates on the ticket. The right to hold of- 

 fice was granted to women by the Territorial 

 Legislature at its last session. 



The following is tho Federal census of Wyo- 

 ming Territory for the year 1870 : 



TEXAS. Public affairs in this State during 

 tho year have been very quiet, and little has oc- 

 curred worthy of record. There has been no 

 political canvass, nor any election. The re- 

 construction measures having been completed 

 in the early part of the year, the administra- 

 tion of tho affairs of the State passed into the 

 hands of her citizens. The Legislature assem- 

 bled on the 8th of February, and, after ratify- 

 ing the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments 

 to the Federal Constitution, proceeded to an 

 election of United States Senators. Lieuten- 

 ant-Governor J. W. Flanagan (Republican) 

 was chosen for the term ending March 3, 1875, 

 and Morgan C. Hamilton (Republican) for the 

 term ending March 3, 1871, and also for tho 

 full term commencing March 4, -1871. In the 

 early part of January, 1871, the Legislature, 

 taking the ground that the election for the lat- 

 ter term was illegal, and that the session in 

 January, 1871, was not the one next pre- 

 ceding the vacancy, within the meaning of the 

 act of Congress regulating the time of the elec- 

 tion of Senators, chose General Reynolds (Re- 

 publican) as United States Senator for the 



