Source: http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/anthony-is-it-a-crime-textual-authentication/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 00:35:47+00:00

Document:
There are three major reports of SBA’s speech, “Is It a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?”: of its debut at the National Woman Suffrage Association meeting in Washington on 16 January 1873; of its delivery in Rochester on 3 April 1873; and as it appeared in An Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony (1874). All of the reports derived from manuscripts provided to the printers but now lost. The text that follows is that reported for 16 January, but within angle brackets, there appear the additions reported for 3 April. Variations in the later pamphlet version are more substantial, and they are placed in the endnotes.
1 the laws.: In Account of the Trial of SBA there is a preceding paragraph: “I stand before you to-night, under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last Presidential election, without having the 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 right, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny.” The Account of the Trial of SBA reproduces a text of the speech that Anthony delivered to local audiences, prior to her trial.
2 consent of the governed.: Declaration of Independence, 1776.
3 “of all women,”: A reference to the equality of the sexes within the Society of Friends.
3 happiness.”: Declaration of Independence, 1776.
7 states.”: Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, 1777, art. IV. See Charles Sumner, “Equal Rights of All,” in Works, 10:188-89, where he describes debate in the Continental Congress about introducing the word “white” into this article.
9 Martin,: SBA paraphrases more than she quotes from the report to the Maryland legislature sent by Luther Martin (1744-1826), a delegate to the constitutional convention in 1787. Francis Minor had also selected Martin as an authority on individual right. See Jonathan Elliot, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution at Philadelphia, in 1787 (1836-1845; reprint, Charlottesville, Va., 1941), 1:351, and History, 2:730.
10 Madison: James Madison (1751-1836) was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1787 and later, fourth president of the United States. SBA located the first quotation from his speech to the convention on 7 August 1787 in Charles Sumner’s “Equal Rights of All.” See Works, 10:180.
10 human nature.”: Sumner also quoted Madison’s address to the states from the Continental Congress, 26 April 1783, in “Equal Rights of All.” See Works, 10:174.
14 republic.”: On 7 March 1866, in his speech, “Political Equality without Distinction of Color. No Compromise of Human Rights.” See Sumner, Works, 10:331-32.
18 crime.”: N.Y. Const., 1846, art. II., sect. 2.
20 peers.”: N.Y. Const., 1846, art. I, sect. 1.
24 1869;: See list above at 19 February 1872.
32 vote.: SBA mentioned this plan in her speech of 13 December 1871. See Film, 15:832.
33 etc.: RSSNY, 1852, 1:715, sec. 1.
34 him.”: RSSNY, 1852, 1:724, sec. 6.
“The same with the law of May 31st, 1870, the 19th section of which I am charged with having violated; not only are all the pronouns in it masculine, but everybody knows that particular section was intended expressly to hinder the rebels from voting. It reads, ‘If any person shall knowingly vote without his having lawful right,’ etc. Precisely so with all the papers served on me-the U.S. Marshal’s warrant, the bail-bond, the petition for habeas corpus, the bill of indictment-not one of them had a feminine pronoun printed in it; but, to make them applicable to me, the Clerk of the Court made a little carat at the left of ‘he’ and places an ‘s’ over it, thus making she out of he. Then the letters ‘is’ were scratched out, the little carat under and ‘er’ over, to make her out of his, and I insist that if government officials may thus manipulate the pronouns to tax, fine, imprison and hang women, women may take the same liberty with them to secure to themselves their right to a voice in government.
38 1850.: Silver v. Ladd, 7 Wallace 219 (1868). SBA summarizes the case below. The spelling of the names in the case has been adjusted to match the court’s spelling, but SBA’s confusion in assigning to Elizabeth Thomas the surname of her son has been retained.
38 woman.”: SBA quotes the case summary.
39 chosen.”: U.S. Const., art. I, sec. 2, para. 2, and sec. 3.
43 thee,: An adaptation of Matt. 6:33.
43 Bouvier: Noah Webster, Joseph Emerson Worchester (1784-1865), and John Bouvier (1787-1851) were American lexicographers.
45 Washington,: In the federal case Corfield v. Coryell in 1823, Bushrod Washington (1762-1829), acting as judge of the Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, provided an oft-cited interpretation of the privileges and immunities clause of the Constitution. Among the privileges he deemed “fundamental” to citizenship, Washington included “the elective franchise, as regulated by the laws or constitution of the state in which it is to be exercised.” SBA’s words come not from the opinion but from A. G. Riddle’s summary of his speech to the House judiciary committee on 11 January 1871, The Right of Women to Exercise the Elective Franchise, under the Fourteenth Article of the Constitution (Washington, D.C., 1871), 9. See also Corfield v. Coryell, 6 Federal Cases 546 (C.C.E.D.Pa. 1823) (No. 3,230).
46 respect,”: Dred Scott v. Sanford, 19 Howard 393, 407 (1857). This phrase appears in Justice Taney’s characterization of public opinion in the eighteenth century, not in his conclusions about the law in 1857. It was, nonetheless, a phrase that clung to the decision.
47 Daniel: Peter Vivian Daniel (1784-1860), who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1841 until his death, wrote one of the nine opinions issued in the Dred Scott case. SBA’s quotation is found at Dred Scott v. Sanford, 476.
48 sovereignty.”: Dred Scott v. Sanford, 404.
49 political.”: The phrase is Daniel’s, not Taney’s. See note 37 above.
50 nation.”: Edward Bates, “Citizenship,” 29 November 1862, Official Opinions of the Attorneys General of the United States, 10:388.
52 citizen!”: The Roman orator Cicero accorded to this sentence, “Civis Romanum sum,” the power to overcome any indignity.
54 nation,: John Bingham cited the opinion of Attorney General Bates that the phrase American citizen “means neither more nor less than a member of the nation”; Matthew Carpenter did not. See House Committee on the Judiciary, Victoria C. Woodhull. Report, 41st Cong., 3d sess., H. Rept. 22, Serial 1464, and Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Report on the Memorial of Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., 42d Cong., 2d sess., S. Rept. 21, Serial 1483.
56 amendment.: In an opinion on women as jurors Howe wrote: “Under the Fourteenth Amendment, women should enjoy the same civil and political rights as are vouchsafed to men-if that amendment means what is says. Few people will be found so idiotic as to assume that women are not ‘persons.'” The Chicago Legal News, 26 August 1871, reprinted a summary of this decision from the Wyoming Tribune, 5 August 1871. SBA kept an unidentified clipping dated 30 September 1871 in scrapbook 4, Rare Books, DLC.
57 legislation?”: Woman’s Journal, 25 November 1871.
59 state.: Corfield v. Coryell, 551. SBA (or her source) made some adjustments to this quotation.
65 Fentons.: This list of prominent New York families includes those of financier Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), merchant Alexander Turney Stewart (1803?-1876), and politicians Roscoe Conkling and Reuben E. Fenton.
67 servitude.”: This analogy between involuntary servitude and the legal position of a wife could be traced to the antebellum woman’s rights movement, but A. G. Riddle also introduced it into the legal debate about the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments. Benjamin Butler quipped that the Fifteenth Amendment’s phrase “previous condition of servitude” protected widows but not wives.
70 correction;: In Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1:366, this legal phrase is treated as out of date long before the eighteenth century, but nineteenth-century American students of the law were more circumspect. The state might protect wives from violent “correction,” but the power of husbands to govern and restrain family members was recognized and written into statute. See also Papers, 1:246-47, 257n.
75 sweet.”: William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 1, lines 85-86.
76 husband!!: Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1:355.
77 Henry: To a list of previously identified patriots, SBA adds Patrick Henry (1736-1799) of Virginia.
77 others.”: Sumner also quoted this passage from James Otis, The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (1764). See Sumner, Works, 10:164.
79 behalf.: “Some Good Whig Principles,” as quoted by Charles Sumner in “The Equal Rights of All,” in his Works, 10:177.
81 property.”: Thomas Paine, “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” as quoted by Benjamin Butler and William Loughridge in their minority report to the House judiciary committee in 1872.
84 Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), sixteenth president of the United States.
86 law.”: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed., History of U.S. Political Parties, vol. 2, 1860-1910: The Gilded Age of Politics (New York, 1973), 1344.
86 legislation.”: National Party Platforms, 47.
87 law.”: A paraphrase of the platform of 1871. See Winfield J. Davis, History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-1892 (Sacramento, Calif., 1893), 305-6.
88 citizens;”: B. Butler to SBA, 12 December 1872, Film, 16:578. The second quotation from Butler is not found.
88 rights.”: Congressional Globe, 42d Cong., 3d sess., 2 December 1872, 7-8. SBA omitted references to this message to Congress when she spoke in Rochester on 3 April 1873.
“What we now ask of Congress, is appropriate legislation to enforce obedience to the National Law in the several states.
The copy-text has been thoroughly checked and proofread.
There are two departures from text A. First, the conclusion of the 16 January 1873 (=A) speech has been placed in the content note regarding paragraph 89, and the conclusion of the 3 April 1873 (=B) speech has been moved from this content note and placed, within brackets, at the end of the speech text. This alteration renders the text of this edition consistent with the speech text that Anthony reportedly delivered on 3 April 1873, before a public audience in Rochester, New York [=C]. Second, the sentence, “The Account of the Trial of SBA reproduces a text of the speech that Anthony delivered to local audiences, prior to her trial” was added to the content note regarding paragraph 1.
End-of-line hyphenated words in the source have been treated as single words in the electronic text.
content note: 35 etc.: lawful right,” etc.
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906 – Trials, litigation, etc.
Trials (Political crimes and offenses)–New York State–Canandaigua.

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