U.S. v. Susan B. Anthony: 1873

The trial opened before Judge Ward Hunt on June 17, 1873. U.S. District Attorney Richard Crowley presented the government's case: "Miss Susan B. Anthony … upon the 5th day of November, 1872,… voted … At that time she was a woman.

Beverly W. Jones, one of the inspectors under indictment for registering Anthonv, testified that he had indeed registered her and that he had received ballots from her on November 5.

Susan B. Anthony's response to Judge Hunt's fine: "May it please your honor, I wi never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.…" (Courtesy, Library of Congress)

Crowley introduced the poll list bearing the name of Susan B. Anthony as proof that the woman voted, and the government rested its case.

Henry Selden then tried to call Anthony to the stand. Crowley objected: "She is not competent as a witness in her own behalf." (Women were not permitted to testify in federal court in the 19th century.)

The judge "so held" that Anthony could not testify.

Selden then took the stand and testified that he concurred with Anthony's reading of the Fourteenth Amendment and that he had advised her to cast her ballot. Selden argued: "The only alleged ground of illegality of the defendant's vote is that she is a woman. If the same act has been done by her brother tinder the same circumstances, the act would have been not only innocent, but honorable and laudable; but having been done by a woman it is said to be a crime. The crime, therefore, consists not in the act done, but in the simple fact that the person doing it was a woman and not a man."

At the conclusion of argument, Judge Hunt read a statement—prepared before he had heard testimony—to the "Gentlemen of the Jury":

The right of voting, or the privilege of voting, is a right or privilege arising under the Constitution of the State, and not of the United States … If the State of New York should provide that no person should vote until he had reached the age of thirty-one years, or after he had reached the age of fifty, or that no person having gray hair, or who had not the use of all his limbs, should be entitled to vote, I do not see how it could be held to he a violation of any right derived or held tinder the Constitution of the United States.

Judge Hunt directed the jury to deliver a guilty verdict.

Selden objected, saying, "it is for the jury [to decide]."

Hunt addressed the jury again: "I have decided as a question of law … that under the Fourteenth Amendment, which Miss Anthony claims protects her, she was not protected in a right to vote.… I therefore direct you to find a verdict of guilty."

Hunt then asked the clerk to record the jury's verdict. The next day, Selden presented a motion and arguments for a new trial, which Hunt denied. Hunt then asked Anthony to stand. "The sentence of the Court is that you pay a fine of $100.00 and the costs of prosecution."

Anthony replied: "May it please your honor, I will never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.… 'Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.'"

Hunt released her, saying, "Madam, the Court will not order to stand committed until the fine is paid."

Anthony never paid the fine.