Will the Clerk poll the jury?
THE COURT: No. Gentlemen of the jury, you are discharged.
On the next day a motion for a new trial was made by Judge Selden, as
follows:
_May it please the Court_:
The trial of this case commenced with a question of very great
magnitude--whether by the constitution of the United States the right of
suffrage was secured to female equally with male citizens. It is likely
to close with a question of much greater magnitude--whether the right of
trial by jury is absolutely secured by the federal constitution to
persons charged with crime before the federal courts.
I assume, without attempting to produce any authority on the subject,
that this Court has power to grant to the defendant a new trial in case
it should appear that in the haste and in the lack of opportunity for
examination which necessarily attend a jury trial, any material error
should have been committed prejudicial to the defendant, as otherwise no
means whatever are provided by the law for the correction of such
errors.
The defendant was indicted, under the nineteenth section of the act of
Congress of May 31st, 1870, entitled, "An act to enforce the right of
citizens of the United States to vote in the several states of this
Union, and for other purposes," and was charged with having knowingly
voted, without having a lawful right to vote, at the congressional
election in the eighth ward of the City of Rochester, in November last;
the only ground of illegality being that the defendant was a woman.
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