Third--That they may also take into consideration, as bearing upon the
same question, the fact that the inspectors considered the question, and
came to the conclusion that she had a right to vote.
Fourth--That the jury have a right to find a general verdict of guilty
or not guilty, as they shall believe that she has or has not been guilty
of the offense prescribed in the statute.
This certainly makes it clear that the question was not "a pure question
of law," and that there was "something to go to the jury." And this
would be so, even if, as that writer erroneously supposes, Miss Anthony
had openly avowed before the Court that she voted.
But even if this point be wholly laid out of the case, and it had been
conceded that Miss Anthony had knowingly violated the law, if she should
be proved to have voted at all, so that the only questions before the
Court were, first--whether she had voted as charged, and
secondly--whether the law forbade her voting; and if in this state of
the case a hundred witnesses had been brought by the government, to
testify that she had "openly avowed" in their presence that she had
voted, so that practically the question of her having voted was proved
beyond all possible question, still, the judge would have no right to
order a verdict of guilty.
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