Where the right of one
individual is attacked, the rights of all are menaced. A blow against
one citizen, is a blow against every citizen.
The government has shown itself very weak in prosecuting Miss Anthony.
No astute lawyer could be found on a side so pregnant of flaws as this
one, were not the plaintiff in the case, the sovereign United States.
The very fact of the prosecution is at one and the same time weakness on
the part of the government, and an act of unauthorized authority. It is
weakness, because by it, the United States comes onto the ground of the
defendant, and, at once admits voting is an United States right, because
United States rights _are citizens' rights_. By this prosecution, the
United States clearly admits that protection of the ballot is an United
States duty, instead of a State duty. It is an United States duty
instead of a State duty, because voting is an United States right
instead of a State right. This prosecution is an open admission by the
United States, that voting is a _Constitutional right_.
But the prosecution is also an admission of unauthorized authority in
that by it, the United States _discriminates between citizens_. If there
is one point of our government more strongly fortified than another, it
is that the government is of the people.
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