Respond to the following questions about the article below:
1. How does Anthony use recent political developments to defend her right to vote?
2. How do you think the judges responded?
3. What makes this a good or bad argument for women’s enfranchisement (right to vote)?
How effective might this document have been in recruiting supporters to the abolitionist movement? Explain.
Reading into the Past
Susan B. Anthony – Not One is My Peer, All Are My Political Sovereigns
Soon after voting in the 1872 presidential election, Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) was arrested for violating federal law. She approached her trial, held in June 1873, as an opportunity to argue the injustice of denying women political equality. For weeks before, she lectured extensively on the constitutional basis of her decision to cast her ballot. At the trial, after being declared guilty, Anthony made a statement that her right to a jury trial was meaningless so long as she was tried by men who did not share her disfranchised condition.
“All of my prosecutors, from the 8th ward corner grocery politician, who entered the complaint, to the United States Marshal, Commissioner, District Attorney, District Judge, your honor on the bench, not one is my peer, but each and all are my political sovereigns;… [I have been tried] by forms of law all made by men, interpreted by men, administered by men, in favor of men, and against women;… But, yesterday, the same man-made forms of law, declared it a crime…for you, or me, or any of us, to give a cup of cold water, a crust of bread, or a night’s shelter to a panting fugitive as he was tracking his way to Canada. And every man or woman in whose veins coursed a drop of human sympathy violated that wicked law, reckless of consequences, and was justified in so doing. As then, the slaves who got their freedom must take it over, or under, or through the unjust forms of law, precisely so, now, must women, to get their right to a voice in this government, take it; and I have taken mine, and mean to take it at every possible opportunity.” (Source: Susan B. Anthony’s response to Judge Hunt at her June 1873 trial, “Stanton and Anthony Papers Online Project,” Rutgers University, http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/sbatrial.html )
