By Tom Collins
Nearly all historical accounts of suffrage for women in Arizona begin with three progressive women: Sallie Hayden, the Hayden’s Ferry postmistress (1876-78) who took a keen interest in politics and entertained suffragist speakers in her home; Josephine Hughes, a Tucson feminist who established the Arizona Suffrage Association (1891); and Frances Munds, who lobbied unsuccessfully for women’s suffrage during the second Constitutional Convention of 1910 when the territory was preparing for statehood.
Interestingly, though, the first congressional bill to establish women’s suffrage in the Arizona Territory was proposed by a man: Murat Masterson, a prominent Prescott attorney and member of the territorial legislature. Born at sea to a French mother and an American father between 1842 and 1846, he served in the Confederate Army as a blockade-runner off the coast of Florida during the Civil War. He passed the bar exam in Kentucky where he courted and married Florence Penny.
After practicing law in Missouri and California, he moved to Prescott in late 1876 and became a successful attorney and mining speculator. Murat and Florence had three children, two of whom died of scarlet fever in March 1877. The epidemic spared their 8-year-old daughter, Pearl. Their sorrow turned to joy in March 1878, when Florence bore twins, Howard and Bessie. Before long, Murat became Yavapai County District Attorney. He was also a founding member of the Prescott Dramatic Association (1878) for which he served as a scene painter and actor. Daughter Pearl often acted with her father at the Prescott Theater. Shortly thereafter, he founded and edited "The Arizona Democrat," a political newspaper. He was elected President of the Territorial Council in 1881. The territorial capital was, at that time, located in Prescott.
It was reportedly at this point that Masterson may have proposed his first tentative women’s suffrage bill, but no records of it have survived – at least none in which the specific language of suffrage is used. Elected to the legislature again in 1883, he gave it a second try. The Phoenix Herald (Feb. 5, 1883) published his "Act to Extend the Right of Suffrage to Women." Section 1 provided that "every female person shall be entitled to vote at all elections, in the same manner in all respects, as made [male] persons are, or shall be, entitled to vote by the laws of the Territory, and the same qualifications of [as] to age, citizenship and time of residence in the Territory, County and Precinct, and all other qualifications required by law to entitle males persons to vote, shall be required to entitle female persons to vote." Section 2 repealed "all Acts or parts of Acts in conflict with the provisions of this Act." Section 3 ordered that this Act would take effect and "be in force from and after its passage."
The bill sparked plenty of debate. Masterson presented the bill with "a speech of an hour’s duration, in which he said, as the Republican party claimed to be the party of progress, he proposed to put the Republican Council on record on this bill, as it was one representing the progressive ideas of the age" (Arizona Weekly Democrat, Feb. 23, 1883). He continued by complaining that in advocating the suffrage bill "he had to fight not only the prejudices of the male fraternity, but a large proportion of the unthinking females also."
He claimed that advocates of the principle involved in the bill "formed the vanguard of progressive thought in the country and since its introduction he had had poured in upon him a perfect flood of letters from all portions of the country. He compared the advocates of it to the early pioneers, who had to battle with the elements to obtain a foothold in the country, and they had to battle against the prejudices of the age, formed from the traditions of the past. He pointed with pride to the progress made in the arts, sciences and manufactures of the country during the past half century, as well as the advanced condition of woman during the same period – of her entering into the professional pursuits heretofore entirely monopolized by man. When the time did come when woman would have a voice in the politics of the country, politics would be much purer." Quoting from Massachusetts governor Benjamin Butler, Murat noted that females in the State of Massachusetts stood highest in educational institutions and that woman’s reasoning powers were greater than that of man.
This opening salvo was countered by the Council member from Maricopa County, Judge Alexander D. Lemon, who argued against the passage of the bill "out of respect he had for that class. Woman moves in a higher sphere, and whenever you dethrone her from the exalted and dignified position intended by the deity and bring her into the filthy maelstrom of politics, instead of conferring a favor upon her you degrade her. Instead of purifying politics by her presence, you contaminate her character by the contact; tend to create discord at the fireside, that most sacred of all places where the germs of character, which, in after life develop into greatness and usefulness, was formed."
The editor of the Arizona Silver Belt agreed that Judge Lemon’s position was sound. "There is as much admiration for women, to the square foot, in this editorial room, as there is anywhere on the footstool; but it would take unto itself wings and fly away to the outermost confines of the world if the women we love were to become ‘loud-talking, tattling, blowing, false-speaking, whisky-guzzling voters.’ That is not an elegant quotation, but it is strong, and it is the Judge’s, and we give it with our endorsement."
(February 23, 1883).
J. C. Martin, editor of the Arizona Weekly Democrat, rejected the bill outright. "We are opposed to Mr. Masterson’s woman’s rights bill in toto, and think such a bill ought not to have been introduced by him, as it is ‘too previous’ in this Territory. The women of this territory are opposed to the voting question and they do not want to wear the breeches and, suggest to the Honorable Senator that he attend to the wants of his male constituents and leave them (the ladies) to their tea parties and home work." (February 9, 1883)
The legislative majority also agreed with Judge Lemon and viewed the bill as a joke. The Phoenix Herald noted (Feb. 2) that it "is the occasion of some levity and some light remarks, but against the justice of the move nothing has been said or can be said. The new school bill gives this right to women in school affairs and why should the matter not be extended further." The women of Utah and Colorado were using that privilege to straighten out some of the "crooked ways of the lords of creation," which had certain editors of the press "howling to have the law repealed." But the editor of the Herald argued, "It seems to us an anomaly that a woman can have and hold property but has no right to have a word to say concerning the laws by which it is protected or otherwise."
Despite the Herald’s sympathetic support, Murat Masterson’s Bill was defeated in 1883. This apparently reflected the will of most Arizonans, both men and women. It is conceivable, though, that Territorial Governor Tritle’s wife, Jennie, an active suffragist, had encouraged Masterson to propose the bill. In his book, ‘Arizona Territorial Officials,’ John S. Goff wrote that Mrs. Tritle was "extremely popular in Arizona and during their years in Prescott was a gracious hostess." She served as the first President of the Prescott Women’s Club (later known as the Monday Club) for five successive terms. She advocated women’s suffrage and formed a club whose goal was to achieve it in Arizona. As for Governor Tritle, he never discussed the issue of women’s suffrage in his addresses to the legislative assembly and remained silent on the subject.
Some months after the 12th legislative session closed, Masterson moved to San Francisco and, for a few months, managed the famous Baldwin Theatre. He subsequently pursued mining interests in southern Arizona. His successor in the 1885 legislature, D. K. Wardwell of Tombstone, re-introduced the suffrage bill with similarly disappointing results. Women were not granted suffrage until Arizona achieved statehood in 1912.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Tutt Library Special Collections, Colorado College) Reuse only by permission.
Murat Masterson, a prominent lawyer in Prescott and member of the Arizona 12th Territorial Legislature, introduced a bill in 1883 for women in the territory to have the right to vote.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po1463p and po1464p) Reuse only by permission.
Murat and Florence had three children, two of whom died of scarlet fever in March 1877. The epidemic spared their 8-year-old daughter, Pearl shown here with her dog in 1877. The Masterson’s sorrow turned to joy in March 1878, when Florence bore twins, Howard and Bessie, shown here in 1879.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:((po1053p and po1051p) Reuse only by permission.
Frederick A. Tritle, 6th Arizona Territorial Governor was in office from March 1882 until November 1885. His wife, Jane "Jennie," was an active suffragist and possibly influenced Murat Masterson to propose his highly contested bill in 1883. The Tritles are shown here c.1880.