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17 - Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian by Alma Lutz · Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen of Susan B. Anthony by al Malts. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter seventeen, is
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  Speaker 1: it a crime for a citizen to vote? Charged with
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  Speaker 1: the crime of voting illegally? Susan was brought to trial
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  Speaker 1: on June seventeenth, eighteen seventy three, in the peaceful village
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  Speaker 1: of Cannadegua, New York. Simply dressed and wearing her new bonnet,
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  Speaker 1: faced with blue silk and draped with a dotted veil,
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  Speaker 1: she stoically climbed the court house steps, feeling as if
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  Speaker 1: on her shoulders she carried the political destiny of American women.
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  Speaker 1: With her were her council Henry R. Selden and John
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  Speaker 1: van Voorhees, her sister Hannah Moser, most of the women
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  Speaker 1: who had voted with her in Rochester, and Matilda Joscelyngage,
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  Speaker 1: whose interest in this case was akin to her own.
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  Speaker 1: In the court room on the second floor, seated behind
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  Speaker 1: the bar, Susan watched the curious crowd gather and fill
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  Speaker 1: every available seat. She wondered, as she calmly surveyed the
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  Speaker 1: all male jury, whether they could possibly understand the humiliation
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  Speaker 1: of a woman who had been arrested for exercising the
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  Speaker 1: rights of a citizen. The judge ward Hunt did not
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  Speaker 1: promise well, for he had only recently been appointed to
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  Speaker 1: the bench through the influence of his friend and townsman
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  Speaker 1: Roscoe Conkling, the undisputed leader of the Republican Party in
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  Speaker 1: New York and a bitter opponent of woman's suffrage. She
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  Speaker 1: tried to fathom this small, white haired, colorless judge, upon
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  Speaker 1: whose fairness so much depended. Prim and stolid. He sat
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  Speaker 1: before her, faultlessly dressed in a suit of black broadcloth,
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  Speaker 1: his neck wound with an immaculate white neckcloth. He ruled
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  Speaker 1: against her at once, refusing to let her testify on
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  Speaker 1: her own behalf. She was completely satisfied, however, as she
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  Speaker 1: listened to Henry Selden's presentation of her case. Tall and commanding,
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  Speaker 1: he stood before the court with nobility and kindness in
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  Speaker 1: his face and eyes, bringing to mind a handsome, cultured Lincoln.
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  Speaker 1: So logical, so just was his reasoning, so impressive were
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  Speaker 1: his citations of the law, that it seemed to her
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  Speaker 1: they must convince the jury, and even the expressionless judge
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  Speaker 1: on the bench, pointing out that The only alleged ground
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  Speaker 1: of the illegality of Miss Anthony's vote was that she
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  Speaker 1: was a woman. Henry Selden declared, if the same act
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  Speaker 1: had been done by her brother under the same circumstance,
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  Speaker 1: the act would have been not only innocent and laudable,
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  Speaker 1: but honorable. But having been done by a woman, it
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  Speaker 1: is said to be a crime. I believe this is
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  Speaker 1: the first instance in which a woman has been arraigned
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  Speaker 1: in a criminal court merely on account of her sex.
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  Speaker 1: He claimed that miss Anthony had voted in good faith,
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  Speaker 1: believing that the United States Constitution gave her the right
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  Speaker 1: to vote, and he clearly outlined her interpretation of the
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth and fifteenth Amendments, declaring that she stood arraigned as
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  Speaker 1: a criminal simply because she took the only step possible
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  Speaker 1: to bring this great constitutional question before the courts. After
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  Speaker 1: he had finished, Susan followed closely for two long hours
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  Speaker 1: the arguments of the district Attorney, Richard Crowley, who contended
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  Speaker 1: that whatever her intentions may have been good or bad,
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  Speaker 1: she had, by her voting, violated a law of the
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  Speaker 1: United States, and was therefore guilty of the crime. At
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  Speaker 1: the close of the district attorney's argument. Judge Hunt, without
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  Speaker 1: leaving the bench, drew out a written document and, to
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  Speaker 1: her surprise, read from it as he addressed the jury.
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  Speaker 1: The right of voting, or the privilege of voting, he declared,
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  Speaker 1: is a right or privilege arising under the constitution of
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  Speaker 1: the state, not of the United States. The legislature of
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  Speaker 1: the State of New York, he continued, has seen fit
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  Speaker 1: to say that the franchise of voting shall be limited
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  Speaker 1: to the male sex. If the Fifteenth Amendment had contained
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  Speaker 1: the word sex, the argument of the defendant would have
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  Speaker 1: been potent. The Fourteenth Amendment gives no right to a
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  Speaker 1: woman to vote, and the voting of Miss Anthony was
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  Speaker 1: in violation of the law. There was no ignorance of
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  Speaker 1: any fact, he added, But all the facts being known,
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  Speaker 1: she undertook to settle a principle in her own person
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  Speaker 1: to constitute a crime. It is true that there must
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  Speaker 1: be a criminal intent, but it is equally true that
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of the facts of the case is always held
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  Speaker 1: to supply this intent. Then, hesitating a moment, he concluded,
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  Speaker 1: upon this evidence, I suppose there is no question for
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  Speaker 1: the jury, and that the jury should be directed to
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  Speaker 1: find a verdict of guilty. Immediately, Henry Selden was on
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  Speaker 1: his feet, addressing the judge, requesting that the jury determine
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  Speaker 1: whether or not the defendant was guilty of crime. Judge Hunt, however,
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  Speaker 1: refused and firmly announced, the question, gentlemen, of the jury
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  Speaker 1: and the form it finally takes, is wholly a question
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  Speaker 1: or questions of law. And I have decided, as a
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  Speaker 1: question of law in the first place, that under the
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth Amendment, which Miss Anthony claims protects her, she was
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  Speaker 1: not protected in a right to vote. And I have
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  Speaker 1: decided also, he continued, that her belief and the advice
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  Speaker 1: which she took does not protect her and the act
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  Speaker 1: which she committed. If I am right in this, the
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  Speaker 1: result must be a verdict on your part of guilty.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore I direct that you find a verdict of guilty. Again,
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  Speaker 1: Henry Selden was on his feet. That is a direction,
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  Speaker 1: he declared, that no court has power to make in
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  Speaker 1: a criminal case. The courtroom was tense, susan watching the
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  Speaker 1: jury and wondering if they would meekly submit to his will.
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  Speaker 1: Heard the judge tersely ordered take the verdict. Mister Clerk
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  Speaker 1: gentlemen of the jury, intoned the clerk. Hearken to your verdict,
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  Speaker 1: as the court has recorded it. You say you find
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  Speaker 1: the defendant guilty of the offense, whereof she stands indicted.
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  Speaker 1: And so say you all, claiming exception to the direction
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  Speaker 1: of the court that the jury find a verdict of
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  Speaker 1: guilty in this a criminal case. Henry Selden asked that
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  Speaker 1: the jury be pulled to this. Judge Hunt abruptly replied, no,
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  Speaker 1: gentlemen of the jury, you are discharged. That night, Susan
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  Speaker 1: recorded her estimate of Judge Hunt's verdict in her diary.
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  Speaker 1: In one terse sentence, the greatest outrage history ever witnessed.
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  Speaker 1: The New York Son, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and
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  Speaker 1: the candidate would Times were indignant over Judge Hunt's failure
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  Speaker 1: to poll the jury. Judge Hunt commented the son allowed
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  Speaker 1: the jury to be impaneled and sworn and to hear
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  Speaker 1: the evidence, but when the case had reached the point
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  Speaker 1: of rendering the verdict, he directed a verdict of guilty.
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  Speaker 1: He thus denied a trial by jury to an accused
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  Speaker 1: party in his court, and either through malice, which we
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  Speaker 1: do not believe, or through ignorance, which in such a
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  Speaker 1: flagrant degree is equally culpable in a judge, he violated
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  Speaker 1: one of the most important provisions of the Constitution of
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  Speaker 1: the United States. The privilege of polling the jury has
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  Speaker 1: been held to an absolute right in this state, and
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  Speaker 1: it is a substantial right. Claiming that the defendant had
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  Speaker 1: been denied her right of trial by jury, Henry Selden
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  Speaker 1: the next day moved for a new time trial. Judge
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  Speaker 1: Hunt denied the motion, and, ordering the defendant to stand up,
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  Speaker 1: asked her, has the prisoner anything to say why sentence
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  Speaker 1: shall not be pronounced? Yes, your honor, Susan replied, I
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  Speaker 1: have many things to say, for in your ordered verdict
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  Speaker 1: of guilty, you have trampled underfoot every vital principle of
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  Speaker 1: our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights,
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  Speaker 1: my judicial rights are all alike. Ignored. Impatiently, Judge Hunt
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  Speaker 1: protested that he could not listen to a rehearsal of
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  Speaker 1: arguments which your counsel had already presented. May it please
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  Speaker 1: your honor, she persisted, I am not arguing the question,
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  Speaker 1: but simply stating the reasons why sentence cannot, injustice be
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  Speaker 1: pronounced against me. You are denied of my citizen's right
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  Speaker 1: to vote. Is the denial of my right of consent
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  Speaker 1: as one of the governed, the denial of my right
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  Speaker 1: of representation as one of the text, the denial of
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  Speaker 1: my right to a trial by a jury of my peers.
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  Speaker 1: The court cannot allow the prisoner to go on, interrupted
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  Speaker 1: Judge Hunt. But Susan, ignoring his command to sit down,
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  Speaker 1: protested that her prosecutors and the members of the jury
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  Speaker 1: were all her political sovereigns. Again, Judge Hunt tried to
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  Speaker 1: stop her, but she was not to be put off.
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  Speaker 1: She was pleading for all women, and her voice rang
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  Speaker 1: out to every corner of the courtroom. The court must insist,
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  Speaker 1: declared Judge Hunt. The prisoner has been tried according to
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  Speaker 1: established forms of law, Yes, your Honor, admitted Susan. But
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  Speaker 1: by forms of law all made by men, interpreted by men,
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  Speaker 1: administered by men, in favor of men and against women.
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  Speaker 1: The court orders the prisoner to sit down, shouted Judge Hunt.
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  Speaker 1: It will not allow another word. Unheeding, Susan continued. When
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  Speaker 1: I was brought before your honor for trial, I hoped
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  Speaker 1: for a broad and liberal interpretation of the Constitution and
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  Speaker 1: its recent amendments that should declare all United States citizens
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  Speaker 1: under its protecting aegis that should declare equality of rights
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  Speaker 1: the national guarantee to all persons born or naturalized in
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  Speaker 1: the United States. By failing to get this justice, failing
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  Speaker 1: even to get a trial by a jury not of
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  Speaker 1: my peers, I ask not leniency at your hands, but
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  Speaker 1: rather the full rigors of the law. Once more, Judge
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  Speaker 1: Hunt tried to stop her, and, acquiescing at last, she
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  Speaker 1: sat down, only to be ordered by him to stand
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  Speaker 1: up as he pronounced her sentence. A fine of one
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  Speaker 1: hundred dollars and the costs of prosecution. May it please
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  Speaker 1: your honor, she protested, I shall never pay a dollar
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  Speaker 1: of your unjust penalty. All the stock in trade I
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  Speaker 1: possess is a ten thousand dollar debt incurred by publishing
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  Speaker 1: my paper, The Revolution, the sole object of which was
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  Speaker 1: to educate all women to do precisely as I have done,
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  Speaker 1: rebel against your man made unjust, unconstitutional forms of law
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  Speaker 1: that tax, fine, imprison and hanging women while they deny
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  Speaker 1: them the right of representation in the government. I shall
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  Speaker 1: earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the
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  Speaker 1: practical recognition of the old revolutionary maxim that resistance to
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  Speaker 1: tyranny is obedience to God. Pouring cold water on this
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  Speaker 1: blaze of oratory, Judge Hunt tersely remarked that the court
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  Speaker 1: would not require her imprisonment pending the payment of her fine.
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  Speaker 1: This shrewd move, obviously planned in advance, made it impossible
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  Speaker 1: to carry the case to the United States Supreme Court
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  Speaker 1: by writ of habeas corpus. That same afternoon, Susan was
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  Speaker 1: on hand for the trial of the three election inspectors.
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  Speaker 1: This time, Judge Hunt submitted the case to the jury,
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  Speaker 1: but with explicit instructions that the defendants were guilty. The
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  Speaker 1: jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the inspectors, denied
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  Speaker 1: a new trial, were each fined twenty five dollars and costs.
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  Speaker 1: Two of them, Edwin F. Marsh and William B. Hall,
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  Speaker 1: refused to pay their fines and were sent to jail.
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  Speaker 1: Susan appealed on their behalf to Senator Sergeant in Washington,
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  Speaker 1: who eventually secured a pardon for them from President Grant.
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  Speaker 1: He also presented a petition to the Senate in January
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy four to remit Susan's fine, as did William
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  Speaker 1: Loffridge of Iowa to the House, but the judiciary committees
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  Speaker 1: reported adversely, because neither of these cases had been decided
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  Speaker 1: on the basis of national citizenship and the right of
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  Speaker 1: a citizen to vote. Susan was heartsick to have them
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  Speaker 1: relegated to the category of election fraud. Was as if
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  Speaker 1: her high purpose had been trailed in the dust. Wishing
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  Speaker 1: to spread reliable information about her trial and the legal
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  Speaker 1: questions involved, she had three thousand copies of the court
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  Speaker 1: proceedings printed for distribution. It was hard for her to
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  Speaker 1: concede that justice for women could not be secured in
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  Speaker 1: the courts, but there seemed to be no way, in
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  Speaker 1: the face of the cold letter of the law, to
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  Speaker 1: take her case to the Supreme Court of the United States.
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  Speaker 1: This would have been possible on writ of habeas corpus
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  Speaker 1: had Judge Hunt sentenced her to prison for failure to
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  Speaker 1: pay her fine, but this he carefully avoided. Even that
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  Speaker 1: intrepid fighter, John van Vorhies, could find no loophole, and
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  Speaker 1: another of her loyal friends in the legal profession, Albert G. Riddle,
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  Speaker 1: wrote her, there is not I think the slightest hope
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  Speaker 1: from the courts, and just as little from the politicians.
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  Speaker 1: They will never take up this cause. Never, individuals will parties,
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  Speaker 1: never till the thing is done. The trouble is that
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  Speaker 1: man can govern alone, and that though woman has the right,
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  Speaker 1: man wants to do it, and if she wait for
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  Speaker 1: him to ask her, she will never vote. Either man
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  Speaker 1: must be made to see and feel the need of
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  Speaker 1: woman's help in the great field of human government, and
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  Speaker 1: so demand it, or woman must arise and come forward
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  Speaker 1: as she never has, and take her place. The case
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  Speaker 1: of Virginia, Minor of Saint Louis still held out a
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  Speaker 1: glimmer of hope. She had brought suit against an election
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  Speaker 1: inspector for his refusal to register her as a voter
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  Speaker 1: in the presidential election of eighteen seventy two, and the
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  Speaker 1: case of Minor versus Happersat reached the United States Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court in eighteen seventy four. An adverse decision on March
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  Speaker 1: twenty ninth, eighteen seventy five, delivered by Chief Justice Weight,
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  Speaker 1: a friend of women's suffrage, was a bitter blow to
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  Speaker 1: Susan and to all those who had pinned their faith
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  Speaker 1: on a more liberal interpretation of the fourteenth and fifteenth Amendments.
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  Speaker 1: Carefully studying the decision, Susan tried to fathom its reasoning
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  Speaker 1: so foreign to her own ideas of justice. Sex, she read,
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  Speaker 1: has never been made as one of the elements of
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  Speaker 1: citizenship in the United States. The fourteenth Amendment did not
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  Speaker 1: affect the citizenship of women any more than it did
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  Speaker 1: of men. The direct question is therefore presented whether all
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  Speaker 1: citizens are necessarily voters, she read on The Constitution does
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  Speaker 1: not define the privileges and immunities of citizens. In this case,
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  Speaker 1: we need not determine what they are, but only whether
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  Speaker 1: suffrage is no necessarily one of them. It certainly is
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  Speaker 1: nowhere made in so expressed terms. When the Constitution of
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  Speaker 1: the United States was adopted, all the several states, with
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  Speaker 1: the exception of Rhode Island, had constitutions of their own.
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  Speaker 1: We find in no state were all citizens permitted to vote.
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  Speaker 1: Women were excluded from suffrage, and nearly all the states,
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  Speaker 1: by the express provision of their constitutions and laws. No
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  Speaker 1: new state has ever been admitted to the Union which
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  Speaker 1: has conferred the right of suffrage upon women, And this
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  Speaker 1: has never been considered valid objection to her admission. On
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  Speaker 1: the contrary, the right of suffrage was withdrawn from women
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  Speaker 1: as early as eighteen o seven in the state of
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  Speaker 1: New Jersey, without any attempt to obtain the interference of
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  Speaker 1: the United States to prevent it. Since then, the governments
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  Speaker 1: of the insurgent states have been reorganized under a requirement
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  Speaker 1: that before their representatives could be admitted to seats in Congress,
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  Speaker 1: they must have adopted new constitutions Republican in form In.
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  Speaker 1: No one of these constitutions was suffrage conferred upon women,
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  Speaker 1: and yet the states have all been restored to their
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  Speaker 1: original position as states in the Union. Certainly, if the
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  Speaker 1: courts can consider any question settled, this is one our province, concluded,
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  Speaker 1: Chief Justice wait is to decide what the law is,
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  Speaker 1: not to declare what it should be. Being unanimously of
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  Speaker 1: the opinion that the Constitution of the United States does
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  Speaker 1: not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone, and that
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  Speaker 1: the constitutions and laws of the several States which commit
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  Speaker 1: that important trust to men alone, are not necessarily void,
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  Speaker 1: we affirm the judgment of the court below a State's
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  Speaker 1: Right Document. Susan called this decision, as she scored it
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  Speaker 1: as inconsistent with the policies of a Republican administration, which,
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  Speaker 1: through the Civil War amendments, had established federal control over
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  Speaker 1: the rights and privileges of citizens. If the Constitution does
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  Speaker 1: not confer the right of suffrage, she asked herself, why
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  Speaker 1: does it define the qualifications of those voting for members
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  Speaker 1: of the House of Representatives. How about the enfranchisement of
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  Speaker 1: negroes by federal amendment or the enfranchisement of foreigners? Why
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  Speaker 1: did the federal government interfere in her case instead of
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  Speaker 1: leaving it in the hands of the State of New York.
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  Speaker 1: Like most abolitionists, Susan had always regarded the principles of
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  Speaker 1: the Declaration of Independence as underlying the Constitution and as
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  Speaker 1: the essence of constitutional law. In her opinion, the interpretation
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  Speaker 1: of the Constitution in the Virginia Minor case was not
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  Speaker 1: only out of harmony with the spirit of the Declaration
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  Speaker 1: of Independence, but also contrary to the wise Council of
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  Speaker 1: the great English jurist, Sir Edward Coke, who said, whenever
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  Speaker 1: the question of liberty runs doubtful, the decision must be
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  Speaker 1: given in favor of liberty. In the face of such
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  Speaker 1: a ruling by the highest court in the land, she
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  Speaker 1: was helpless. Women were shut out of the Constitution and
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  Speaker 1: denied its protection. From here on, there was only one
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  Speaker 1: course to follow, to press again for a sixteenth Amendment
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  Speaker 1: to enfranchise women. End of Chapter seventeen.