June 18 – Susan B. Anthony Fined for Voting

nPostednon June 18, 2014

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Fornmore than half of the existence of the United States, women weren’tnallowed to vote. (Women still can’t vote – or even DRIVE!!! – innSaudi Arabia, although the king has promised that they will benallowed to vote in the 2015 local elections.)

On this date inn1873, the trial of Susan B. Anthony for casting a vote in the 1872npresidential election was ended. And not in a good way.

nDuringnthe trial, Anthony had argued that women were guaranteed the right tonvote by the all-new, shiny Fourteenth Amendment, which in its firstnsection stated that “all persons born or naturalized in the UnitesnStates…are citizens of the United States.” That section of thenamendment goes onto state that “no state shall make or enforce anynlaw which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens ofnthe United States.” n

nOfncourse, those privileges include the right to vote. Obviously, thisnwas a slam-dunk – Anthony had been born in the U.S., was a citizen,nand could vote!

nRight?

nWhennthe testimony and legal arguments were over in Anthony’s trial, thenjudge took a piece of paper out of his pocket and read from it: “ThenFourteenth Amendment gives no right to a woman to vote, and thenvoting by Miss Anthony was in violation of the law.” He then made anbunch more comments and specifically ordered the jury to find Anthonynguilty.

nThisnoutraged Anthony. And her lawyer. And even some of the jurors.

nButnthe jury did give a “Guilty” verdict.

nThenjudge fined Anthony $100. That’s about $2000 in today’s money.

nAnthonynprobably would have contested the verdict – maybe even taken it allnthe way to the Supreme Court – but the judge didn’t have hernimprisoned until she paid the fine. Apparently that took away anyngrounds for an appeal.

nAnthonynnever did pay the fine.

nOnnthe day of her sentencing, when asked if she had anything to say,nSusan B. Anthony told the judge: n

n“Yes,nyour honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered verdict ofnguilty, you have trampled underfoot every vital principle of ourngovernment. n

nMynnatural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicialnrights, are all alike ignored. n

nRobbednof the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from thenstatus of a citizen to that of a subject; and not only myselfnindividually, but all of my sex, are, by your honor’s verdict,ndoomed to political subjection under this, so-called, form ofngovernment.”nn

Anthony was very eloquent! She is
also one of the few real women ever
featured on U.S. money. (Lady Liberty
has appeared on lots of coins but is not
a real person!)

nTonbe fair to the judge, the second section of the Fourteenth Amendmentntalks about voting, and it specifically uses the word malenseveral times. It was the very first time the word malenappeared in the U.S. Constitution. Anthony and others actually fought againstnthe Amendment, wanting the language in Section 2 to be changed tonlanguage of universal suffrage – that is, voting rights for men andnwomen, whatever their race – but many women’s rights advocatesnfought for the amendment, certain that it was necessary to providenracial equality.

nThey were certain,nalso, that once black former-slaves were guaranteed equal rights, it wouldn’t be long before women, too, were guaranteednequal rights.

nHowever,nit took almost another half century before women were guaranteed thenright to vote in the U.S. And women still do not have an equal rightsnguarantee explicitly stated in the Constitution, since the EqualnRights Amendment proposed in 1923, finally passed in Congress inn1972, and ratified in 35 of the needed 38 states by 1977, founderednat that point and was never made a part of the Constitution.

nAmazing,nisn’t it?

nAlsonon this date: