JUDGE HUNT--The Court must insist--the prisoner has been tried according
to the established forms of law.
MISS ANTHONY--Yes, your honor, but by forms of law all made by men,
interpreted by men, administered by men, in favor of men, and against
women; and hence, your honor's ordered verdict of guilty, against a
United States citizen for the exercise of "_that citizen's right to
vote_," simply because that citizen was a woman and not a man. But,
yesterday, the same man made forms of law, declared it a crime
punishable with $1,000 fine and six months' imprisonment, for you, or
me, or any of us, to give a cup of cold water, a crust of bread, or a
night's shelter to a panting fugitive as he was tracking his way to
Canada. And every man or woman in whose veins coursed a drop of human
sympathy violated that wicked law, reckless of consequences, and was
justified in so doing. As then, the slaves who got their freedom must
take it over, or under, or through the unjust forms of law, precisely
so, now, must women, to get their right to a voice in this government,
take it; and I have taken mine, and mean to take it at every possible
opportunity.
JUDGE HUNT--The Court orders the prisoner to sit down. It will not allow
another word.
MISS ANTHONY--When I was brought before your honor for trial, I hoped
for a broad and liberal interpretation of the Constitution and its
recent amendments, that should declare all United States citizens under
its protecting aegis--that should declare equality of rights the national
guarantee to all persons born or naturalized in the United States.
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