ter.

Soon after the passage of the bill, a vacancy occurred in the
office of justice of the peace, at South Pass City, the county
seat of Sweetwater county, and the home of Mr. Bright and of Mrs.
Esther Morris. At the request of the county attorney--who favored
woman suffrage--the commissioners, two of whom also approved of
it, appointed Mrs. Morris to fill the vacancy. The legislature
had vested the appointment of officers, in case of a vacancy, in
the county commissioners, but the organic act of congress,
creating the territory, provided that the governor "shall
commission all officers who shall be appointed under the laws of
said territory." Governor Campbell being absent from the
territory at the time, the secretary, acting as governor, sent
Mrs. Morris her commission. It is due to Secretary Lee to say
that he was an earnest advocate of woman's enfranchisement, and
labored for the passage of the bill, and gladly embraced the
opportunity to confirm a woman in office. The important fact is,
however, that Mrs. Morris' neighbors first suggested the
appointment that secured her the office, and manfully sustained
her during her whole term. She tried between thirty and forty
cases, and decided them so acceptably that not one of them was
appealed to a higher court; and I know of no one who has held the
office of justice of the peace in this territory, who has left a
more acceptable record, in all respects, than has Mrs. Esther
Morris. Some other appointments of women to office were made, but
I do not find that any of them entered upon its duties.

The first term of the District Court, under the statutes passed
by the first legislature, was to be held at Laramie City, on the
first Monday of March, 1870. When the jurors were drawn, a large
number of women were selected, for both grand and petit jurors.
As this was not done by the friends of woman suffrage, there was
evidently an intention of making the whole subject odious and
ridiculous, and giving it a death-blow at the outset. A great
deal of feeling was excited among the people, and some effort
made to prejudice the women against acting as jurors, and even
threats, ridicule and abuse, in some cases, were indulged in.
Their husbands were more pestered and badgered than the women,
and some