On Women's Right to Vote [1872]
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
Susan Brownell Anthony fought for women throughout the nineteenth century in an effort to gain equal voting rights, pay, and education. Her words of protest were met with heated reactions; however, this response did not daunt Anthony. She organized the National Woman Suffrage Association to further the cause of women’s voting rights but was arrested for the crime of voting in 1872 when she led a group of women to the polls to cast ballots in the presidential election. Her courtroom speech, reprinted below, was published by newspapers nationwide in 1872.
Friends and fellow citizens, I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.
The preamble of the federal Constitution says: “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people— women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government—the ballot.
For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is to pass a bill of attainder, or an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, . . . might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household—which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation. Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office. The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.
oligarchy - a state governed by a few person
Questions for Discussion
1. This speech conveys all the following messages except that the author —
A) is upset over the attitudes of the times
B) wants equality for all
C) wants to enter politics .
D) is knowledgeable of government affairs
2. Susan B. Anthony cleverly offers the best evidence for her cause by —
A) quoting “We the people” as written in the Constitution .
B) opening with “Friends and fellow citizens . . .”
C) referring to democracy as “an oligarchy of sex”
D) stating that “all men sovereigns, all women subjects”
3. “Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.” In paragraph 5, Anthony cites the common definitions of the word “citizen” in order to —
A) show these authors agree with her position
B) prove she has done her research on the subject
C) use accepted definitions to prove her point .
D) illustrate that every citizen is a person in the United States
4. Anthony’s outrage at women’s lack of equal rights is most forcefully expressed in which of these statements?
A) The whole people formed the union to secure the blessings of liberty for men and women.
B) To make sex a qualification will result in disfranchisement of one entire half of the people.
C) It is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty. .
D) No state has the right to make any law, or enforce any old law, that shall abridge privileges.
5. This selection is an example of persuasive argument because it —
A) presents an opposing point of view .
B) is written in first-person point of view
C) relates a personal experience
D) refers to a historical document
6. Susan B. Anthony’s speech gains support for her cause by clearly reflecting —
A) her wish to gain personal notoriety
B) her frustration with the white, male attitude .
C) her frustration with women who don’t wish to vote
D) her wish to make public speeches
7. Which major American literature theme is captured in this selection?
A) Rebellion and protest .
B) Searching for scientific progress
C) Honoring the historical past
D) Disillusionment with self