Politics

During the 1866 and 1869 Pennsylvania gubernatorial elections, Carey supported and gave speeches in favor of Governor John W. Geary. He cast his first vote in 1866 and was later asked by the chairman of the Republican Party of New Jersey to give speeches in multiple New Jersey towns.^[2][3]

On April 3, 1869, Carey was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant as the first United States attorney in the Wyoming Territory and arrived on May 8.^[4] On December 14, 1871, he was nominated as an associate justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court by Grant, confirmed by the Senate on January 18, 1872, and served until 1876.^[2][3][5]

During the second session of the United States Centennial Commission, Carey was selected to represent the Wyoming Territory and served on the Committee on Nomination of Secretaries of Departments.^[6][7] Carey abstained when the commission voted on whether or not to allow the Centennial Exposition to remain open on Sundays.^[8]

In 1876, he was selected to serve as the Wyoming Territory's National Republican committeeman on the Republican National Committee and remained in the position until 1897.^[9]

Mayor

In 1880, Carey was elected as mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming while he was out of state by running on a public works improvement platform. He was reelected in 1881, and again without opposition in 1882. During his tenure as mayor, the city's water and sewage systems were completed, an opera house was built, and the Stock Growers National Bank was organized and selected Carey to serve as its first president.^[2][3]

The Wyoming Development Company was founded in 1883 with the intention of bringing water to thousands of arid acres of land in the Wheatland Flats. In 1885, Carey was selected to lead the organization and built a reservoir using water from the Laramie River. Water from the reservoir was transferred throughout the flats through canals and ditches and successfully irrigated 50,000 acres of land, allowing the area to become inhabitable.^[10][11]

U.S. House of Representatives

On July 30, 1874, the Wyoming Republican Party unanimously nominated Carey at its state convention to serve as the territory's delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the at-large congressional district, but was narrowly defeated by incumbent Democratic Delegate William Randolph Steele.^[12][13]

On October 22, 1884, Carey was given the Republican nomination for the at-large congressional district after Francis E. Warren declined the nomination.^[14] In the general election, he defeated Democratic nominee William H. Holliday.^[15] During the 1884 election, the Wyoming Democratic Party did not nominate a candidate for the at-large congressional district and Carey received almost ninety percent of the popular vote with the remainder being split among Democratic write-in candidates.^[16][17] On October 8, 1888, he received the Republican nomination again and was reelected against Democratic nominee Caleb P. Organ.^[18][19]

On May 18, 1887, he gave a speech at the dedication ceremony of the Wyoming State Capitol building.^[20]

When Territorial Governor William Hale died, Carey asked President Chester A. Arthur to nominate Warren, as he was a resident of Wyoming, rather than select a non-resident. Warren was nominated and the rest of Wyoming's territorial governors until statehood were residents of Wyoming. President Benjamin Harrison offered to appoint Carey to an important position in Wyoming, but he declined as he wanted to work towards Wyoming statehood.^[2][3]

In 1889, Carey proposed legislation that would admit Wyoming as a state, but Congress did not act upon on his proposal. Although Carey's proposal was unsuccessful, Governor Warren still ordered an election for delegates to a constitutional convention to write a state constitution. On March 26, 1890, Carey introduced legislation to admit Wyoming as a state, passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 139 to 127 in favor, and passed the Senate with 29 to 18 in favor. The legislation was signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison on July 10, 1890. Although Wyoming had a population of less than 60,000 at the time of its statehood, Carey stated that it did not matter as several other states had been admitted with populations lower than Wyoming's.^[21]

United States Senate

Following Wyoming's statehood, the first state legislature held a session at the order of Governor Warren. On November 12, 1890, the state legislature voted on the appointment of its two senators to the United States Senate. Carey defeated George W. Baxter while Warren defeated M. C. Brown, John McCormick, H. R. Mann, and Henry A. Coffeen.^[2][3] In 1895, he ran for reelection, but the state legislature unanimously voted in favor of Francis E. Warren due to Carey's opposition to the free silver movement.^[22]

Interlude

In 1894, he was named as honorary chancellor of Union College and was given an honorary LL. D.^[2][3] During the 1896 United States presidential election he stated that Governor William McKinley would narrowly defeat William Jennings Bryan.^[23] In 1897, a constitutional convention was held in Delaware where a letter from Carey in support of women's suffrage was read on February 16.^[24] On September 6, he and his brother, Davis Carey, were thrown from a carriage. Joseph Carey received cuts on his head while Davis was uninjured.^[25]

Governor