Susan B. Anthony's Defiant Stand: Breaking Law, Changing History

Susan B. Anthony was a prominent American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. In 1872, she was arrested in her hometown of Rochester, New York, for voting in violation of laws that only allowed men to vote.

Anthony had been planning to vote long before 1872. She believed that the recently adopted Fourteenth Amendment, which stated that all persons born and naturalized in the United States...are citizens of the United States, gave women the constitutional right to vote. On November 1, 1872, she and her three sisters entered a voter registration office and demanded to be registered to vote. The election inspectors refused Anthony's request, but she persisted, quoting the Fourteenth Amendment. The inspectors eventually allowed Anthony and her sisters to register to vote after seeking legal advice.

On election day, November 5, Anthony and fourteen other women from her ward went to the polling place to cast their ballots. Anthony's vote went to U.S. Grant and other Republicans, based on the party's promise to give the demands of women a respectful hearing. However, her actions were considered illegal, and she was arrested on November 18 and charged with voting in a federal election without having a lawful right to vote.

The trial of Susan B. Anthony, United States v. Susan B. Anthony, began on June 17, 1873, and was closely followed by the national press. The judge, Ward Hunt, directed the jury to find Anthony guilty and sentenced her to pay a fine of $100, which she refused to pay. Hunt's decision to not sentence Anthony to jail prevented her from taking her case to the Supreme Court.

The trial helped make women's suffrage a national issue and was a major step in the transition of the women's rights movement into one that focused primarily on women's suffrage. Despite facing harsh criticism and ridicule, Anthony continued her activism and played a key role in the creation of the International Council of Women. She died in 1906, fourteen years before the Nineteenth Amendment, which prohibited the denial of suffrage based on sex, was ratified in 1920. Colloquially known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, it stood as a tribute to her integrity, determination, and influence in bringing about women's right to vote.

Susan B. Anthony's arrest and trial

On November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony and 14 other women attempted to vote in Rochester, New York, challenging section one of the 14th Amendment, which states, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." They were allowed by election officials to successfully register and cast their ballots in the 1872 election but were later arrested and charged for "knowingly, wrongfully, and unlawfully vot [ing] for a representative to the Congress of the United States."

U.S. Marshals were directed to take Anthony to jail in December 1872—the only one of the group indicted and brought to trial. During the trial, Judge Ward Hunt instructed the jury to issue a guilty verdict without any deliberation. Anthony was found guilty and fined $100, which she never paid.

The Arrest

On November 1, 1872, Anthony and her three sisters entered a voter registration office set up in a barbershop. The four Anthony women were part of a group of fifty women Anthony had organized to register in her hometown of Rochester. As they entered the barbershop, the women saw three young men serving as registrars. Anthony walked directly to the election inspectors and demanded that they register them as voters. The election inspectors refused Anthony's request, but she persisted, quoting the Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship provision and the article from the New York Constitution pertaining to voting, which contained no gender qualification.

The registers remained unmoved. Finally, according to one published account, Anthony gave the men an argument that she thought might catch their attention: "If you refuse us our rights as citizens, I will bring charges against you in Criminal Court and I will sue each of you personally for large, exemplary damages!" She added, "I know I can win. I have Judge Selden as a lawyer. There is any amount of money to back me, and if I have to, I will push to the 'last ditch' in both courts."

The stunned inspectors discussed the situation. They sought the advice of the Supervisor of elections, Daniel Warner, who suggested that they allow the women to take the oath of registry. "Young men," Marsh quoted Warner as saying, "do you know the penalty of law if you refuse to register these names?" Registering the women, the registrars were advised, "would put the entire onus of the affair on them." Following Warner's advice, the three inspectors voted to allow Anthony and her three sisters to be registered to vote in Rochester's eighth ward.

The Trial

The trial, United States v. Susan B. Anthony, began on June 17, 1873, and was closely followed by the national press. Following a rule of common law at that time, which prevented criminal defendants in federal courts from testifying, Hunt refused to allow Anthony to speak until the verdict had been delivered. On the second day of the trial, after both sides had presented their cases, Justice Hunt delivered his lengthy opinion, which he had put in writing. In the most controversial aspect of the trial, Hunt directed the jury to deliver a guilty verdict.

On the second day of the trial, Hunt asked Anthony if she had anything to say. She responded with "the most famous speech in the history of the agitation for women's suffrage", according to Ann D. Gordon, a historian of the women's movement. Repeatedly ignoring the judge's order to stop talking and sit down, she protested what she called "this high-handed outrage upon my citizen's rights", saying, "you have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored." She castigated Justice Hunt for denying her a trial by jury, but said that even if he had allowed the jury to discuss the case, she still would have been denied her right to a trial by a jury of her peers because women were not allowed to be jurors.

When Justice Hunt sentenced Anthony to pay a fine of $100, she responded, "I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty" and she never did. If Hunt had ordered her to be jailed until she paid the fine, Anthony could have filed a writ of habeas corpus to gain a hearing before the Supreme Court. Hunt instead announced he would not order her taken into custody, closing off that legal avenue.

The Fourteenth Amendment

> All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Susan B. Anthony, a prominent American social reformer and women's rights activist, believed that this amendment gave women the right to vote. In 1872, she voted in her hometown of Rochester, New York, in violation of laws that only allowed men to vote. She was subsequently arrested and put on trial, in a case known as United States v. Susan B. Anthony.

Anthony's argument rested on the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. She contended that, as citizens, women were entitled to all the rights of citizens, including the right to vote. This right, she asserted, was the most important liberty a citizen could exercise. She further argued that the amendment's use of the word "persons" was significant, as it indicated that women were included in the provision.

The trial judge, Ward Hunt, disagreed with Anthony's interpretation. He held that the Constitution allowed states to prohibit women from voting and that Anthony was guilty of violating the law. This decision created a controversy within the legal community, with some arguing that Hunt had overstepped his authority by directing the jury to deliver a guilty verdict.

The trial of Susan B. Anthony brought national attention to the women's suffrage movement and was a pivotal moment in the fight for women's right to vote, which was ultimately achieved with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

The Fifteenth Amendment

However, the Amendment did not include gender, and so the right to vote was not extended to women. This exclusion was a result of the compromise between abolitionists and women's rights activists, who had differing views on the prioritisation of Black male suffrage and universal suffrage.

Women's rights activists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposed the Fifteenth Amendment, believing that if anyone deserved the vote, it was educated white women first. They argued that the Fifteenth Amendment created an "oligarchy of sex", giving constitutional authority to the idea that men were superior to women.

Other women's rights activists, such as Frederick Douglass and Lucy Stone, still supported the Fifteenth Amendment, believing that it was impossible to get the vote for both Black men and white women at the same time.

The Nineteenth Amendment

Susan B. Anthony was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. In 1872, she was arrested in her hometown of Rochester, New York, for voting in violation of laws that allowed only men to vote. She was convicted in a widely publicised trial, but refused to pay the fine, and the authorities declined to take further action.

Anthony travelled extensively in support of women's suffrage, giving as many as 75 to 100 speeches per year and working on many state campaigns. She also worked internationally for women's rights, playing a key role in creating the International Council of Women, which is still active.

The National Woman Suffrage Association

The NWSA was politically independent and focused primarily on winning suffrage at the national level. It was formed in reaction to the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted all male citizens over 21 the right to vote. The NWSA opposed this amendment as it did not include gender and so continued to exclude women from voting. The NWSA believed that women and African Americans should be enfranchised at the same time and worked towards a politically independent women's movement that was no longer dependent on abolitionists.

In 1870, Anthony relinquished her position at The Revolution, a newspaper she had founded with Stanton in 1868, and embarked on a series of lecture tours to pay off the paper's debts. As a test of the legality of the suffrage provision of the Fourteenth Amendment, she cast a vote in the 1872 presidential election in Rochester, New York. She was arrested, convicted and fined $100, which she refused to pay. The judge did not sentence her to prison, which prevented her from appealing her case further.

In 1890, after lengthy discussions, the NWSA merged with its rival, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. After Stanton resigned in 1892, Anthony became president.

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