tates in their worthy endeavors
for higher education, for profitable employment in the trades and
professions and for equal social, civil and political rights, it is
with renewed self-respect and a stronger hope of better days to
come that we turn to the magnificent territory of Wyoming, where
the foundations of the first true republic were laid deep and
strong in equal rights to all, and where for the first time in the
history of the race woman has been recognized as a sovereign in her
own right--an independent, responsible being--endowed with the
capacity for self-government. This great event in the history of
human progress transpired in 1869.

Neither the point nor the period for this experiment could have
been more fitly chosen. Midway across this vast western continent,
on the highest plane of land, rising from three to eight thousand
feet above the level of the sea, where gigantic mountain-peaks
shooting still higher seem to touch the clouds, while at their feet
flow the great rivers that traverse the State in all directions,
emptying themselves after weary wanderings into the Pacific ocean
at last; such was the grand point where woman was first crowned
with the rights of citizenship. And the period was equally marked.
To reach the goal of self-government the women of England and
America seemed to be vieing with each other in the race, now one
holding the advance position, now the other. And in many respects
their struggles and failures were similar. When seeking the
advantages of collegiate education, the women of England were
compelled to go to France, Austria and Switzerland for the
opportunities they could not enjoy in their own country. The women
of our Eastern States followed their example, or went to Western
institutions for such privileges, granted by Oberlin and Antioch in
Ohio, Ann Arbor in Michigan, Washington University in Missouri, and
refused in all the colleges of the East. For long years, alike they
endured ridicule and bitter persecution to secure a foothold in
their universities at home.

Our battles in Parliament and in the Congress of the United States
were simultaneous. While nine senators,[491] staunch and true,
voted in favor of woman suffrage in 1866, and women were rolling up
their petitions for a constitutional amendment in '68 and '69, with
Samuel C. Pomeroy in the Senate and George W. Julian in the House,
the women of England, keeping step and time, found their champions
in the Hou