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History: The Wyoming Constitution Adopted 135 Years Ago
In 1890, Wyoming became the 44th state in the union. Before they could become a state, they had to have a constitution. That document was adopted in November of 1889, when the people in the territory voted to accept it.
According to the book, “On This Day in Wyoming History” by Patrick T. Holscher, the Wyoming constitution is unique in two ways. It is only state constitution to survive, with the exemption of some amendments, in its original form since it adoption. Most state constitutions have been replaced since the first one. Wyoming’s is also the first constitution in the United States to provide for a woman’s right to vote.
Here are some of the old newspapers’ take on the document. Water, in our semi-arid state, was important, and the writer had some ideas on streams and irrigation.
The Daily Boomerang, June 18, 1889 – Some Suggestions Concerning The Constitution Soon To Be Framed. Attorney Groesbeck Gives His Views On Various Important Provisions Which He Thinks It Should Contain – (Here are only a few of them.) To the Editor of the Boomerang: At your request, I give as briefly as possible, in my views of some important provisions that the constitution should contain:
There should be a clear declaration as now exists in our statute law on the subject of irrigation, with the addition, that no rights as to the use of navigable streams should interfere with the use of the waters there of for agricultural, domestic and manufacturing purposes. The use of the streams for floating timber and ties should be subordinated to such purposes.
It is doubtful if under our organic act riparian owners, that is, those who own lands along a stream, can be deprived of the water by those owning lands in the vicinity of streams, but not along or on them. It has been so decided in California (When the constitution of that state has a similar provision as in our organic act) that the water flowing through a stream is an incident to the soil, and its diversion from the use of the riparian owners to the extent of the requirements of their soil, is an inference with “The primary disposal of the soil, removing this restriction, should in my judgment, be as to the appropriation of water, the rule should be: “First come, first served.” and the prior appropriator should have the first right, with proper restriction to existing rights.
(Just like today, people were worried about ballot integrity)
We should have a system of registration for voters and ample provisions for the protection of the ballot from intimidation, fraud and bribery. The provision of the constitution of New York compelling all public officers from constable to governor to swear that they have not contributed any money or valuable thing towards their election, or promised to contribute the same, should be adopted. Give us a pure, free and fair ballot and count.
I am in favor of woman suffrage, although I know that there is a strong undercurrent against it. The women voters of Wyoming have been modest, capable and wise in exercising their right of suffrage. If we can’t get into the union with female suffrage, let us stay out until reason returns to congress.
There should be some provisions inserted as to revenue and taxation. There are many who believe firmly in the principle of a single land tax, and some of the most intelligent of our people. This need not be incorporated in the constitution, but the legislature might be given the power to provide for it, in the proper time, if the people will it. The provision in the Pennsylvania constitution taking the estates of decedents, above a certain amount, ought to be incorporated….
The North Dakota convention of seventy-five members, is composed of forty farmers, and but five or six lawyers, the balance being business and working men, and our convention should be composed of all the classes that make up our sturdy little commonwealth. The convention must not be all brain, all force, or all heart. Let it be composed of all three, and we shall have a constitution that shall astonish and please the salons at Washington, and give them a little instruction from the mountaintop, and likewise be acceptable to all our people. And in closing, I trust that all will have their say on this question. We shall learn much by this agitation. In the words of the Holy Writ; “In the multitude of counselors there is safety.”
– HVS Groesbeck.
Wyoming State Capitol, Vannoy photo
Since the women’s right to vote was still not universally accepted, there was a great deal of back and forth about whether women should vote or not.
The Daily Boomerang, Laramie, June 18, 1889 – Wyoming’s Women Voters
Rocky Mountain News; Wyoming has got to have another tussle with woman suffrage. Twenty years ago the right to vote was granted to women in that territory. It was done more as an advertisement than anything else, and as such it was a success. If it has been a success in any other particular the News is not aware of it. The politics of Wyoming is no better or no worse than in any other state or territory; its public service is not purer, its laws no more just, its general morality no more pronounced than in other sections of the country
The great benefits to women, of which the public has heard so much from the mouths of short-haired women and long-haired men, have not resulted, and except in being able to say that they could vote if they wished to, Wyoming women are very much as they are in other portions of the republic.
The experiment has demonstrated the fact that women do not care for the ballot. Priding themselves on the possession of the right, they have very generally failed to exercise it. The voting female in Wyoming is the exception rather than the rule. Thus the vaunted woman suffrage act has been of a more ornamental than of a practical character.
Living where they can vote, they have not shown any general disposition to exercise the elective franchise. But now that the matter is to be determined for all time to come in a state constitution, the ladies have taken steps to retain what was granted them twenty years ago, and the proceedings of their convention held in Cheyenne were given very fully in yesterday’s News.
Without going any further into the discussion of woman suffrage, beyond what the past twenty years have demonstrated, the News just wishes to remark that the good women of Wyoming are in a position to enforce their claim if they choose to do so. They can certainly elect a fair share of the delegates to the constitutional convention if they wish to. When the constitution is framed and submitted to the people they can vote on it, and if any considerable opposition to it should be developed among the male population, the women can use their ballots for the rejection of the constitution which deprives them of the right granted by the territorial law. For it is a fact that in all the movements which lead up to statehood women have, under the existing law, the same right to vote as men.
If the women fail to engraft their right to suffrage in the new constitution it will be because as a whole they are indifferent to it. The importance of the matter in this connection lies in the fact that if women are granted the right to vote by the state constitution, it is doubtful if they could ever be deprived of it.
It is also a curious matter of speculation as to what congress would do with a new state constitution that contained woman suffrage clause. Certain it is that it displays any considerable anxiety about it, the men who desire statehood will put the clause in the constitution as a matter of policy and take the risk on the action of congress rather than on its rejection by the voters of the indignant women of the territory.
And this from The Daily Boomerang, October 22, 1889 – A Progressive Document. – The Casper Mail thus advocated the ratification of the state constitution: “‘There seems to be little doubt now that the constitution will be adopted by the people of Wyoming on the 5th day of next month. The danger of delay in our efforts to become a state is seen by all and none are so blind to their own interests as to wish it to remain in at territorial condition for years to come.
The document for which we are asked to vote is pronounced a progressive one and is acknowledged by critics to be the best of the late constitutions. The body of men who framed it, went to their work with but little, hope of reward for the time and expense incurred in the performance of this duty.
Every locality of the great territory of Wyoming was represented and all sections had a say in the formation of the instrument. It is non-sectional and non-political. In the convention an effort was made to secure the most good to the greater number of people. To cast a good vote for the constitution means to do all in our power for the cause of statehood.
Each one should use his individual influence to secure a large vote for the constitution and thus show to congress that we are in earnest in this matter.”
And on November 30, the Daily Boomerang had this item.
Wyoming’s statehood came about in July of 1890, and the new state’s constitution was adopted 135 years ago this month.
