Political Quotes

“Madam President, today, I join my fellow members of the Idaho congressional delegation, Senator Mike Crapo and Representatives Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher, in honoring the fight that so many waged for women's suffrage by recognizing Idaho's role in securing the vote for women in Idaho 24 years before the passage of national women's suffrage legislation and by acknowledging the installation of the Idaho Women's Suffrage Commemorative Sculpture on Idaho's capitol grounds. Notably, 126 years ago, on December 11, 1896, the Idaho State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the women's suffrage cause when it unanimously upheld the Idaho Equal Suffrage Amendment. According to historic Idaho publications, Idaho became the fourth State in the Union to enfranchise women with the right to vote and the first to do so via a State constitutional amendment. Remarkably, Idaho cemented the value and importance of women in the Gem State through a highly visible action prior to the Equal Suffrage Amendment--the adoption of the Idaho state seal--designed by a young woman named Emma Edwards. According to the Journal of the State senate of the Idaho Legislature, on March 14, 1891, the first Idaho State Legislature and Governor Norman B. Willey approved, for official use, Edwards' rendering of the Idaho State Seal--the only woman-designed State seal in the country.…”