Jailed for Freedom | Page 3

degraded from the status of a
citizen to that of a subject; and not only myself individually, but all my
sex are, by your Honor's verdict doomed to political subjection under
this so-called republican form of government.
JUDGE HUNT-The Court cannot. listen to a rehearsal of argument
which the prisoner's counsel has already consumed three hours in
presenting.
Miss ANTHONY-May it please your Honor, I am not arguing the
question, but simply stating the reasons why sentence
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cannot in justice be pronounced against me. Your denial of my citizen's
right to vote, is the denial of my right of consent as one of the governed,
the denial of my right of representation as one taxed, the denial of my
right to a trial by jury of my peers as an offender against law; therefore,
the denial of my sacred right to life, liberty, property, and
JUDGE HUNT-The Court cannot allow the prisoner to go on.
Miss ANTHONY-But, your Honor will not deny me this one and only
poor privilege of protest against this highhanded outrage upon my
citizen's rights. May it please the Court to remember that since the day
of my arrest last November this is the first time that either myself or
any person of my disfranchised class has been allowed a word of
defense before judge or jury
JUDGE HUNT-The prisoner must sit down, the Court cannot allow it.
Miss ANTHONY-Of all my persecutors from the corner grocery
politician who entered the complaint, to the United States marshal,
commissioner, district attorney, district judge, your Honor on the bench,
not one is my peer, but each and all are my political sovereigns . . . .

Precisely as no disfranchised person is entitled to sit upon the jury and
no woman is entitled to the franchise, so none but a regularly admitted
lawyer is allowed to practice in the courts, and no woman can gain
admission to the bar-hence, jury, judge, counsel, all must be of superior
class.
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 the "citizen's right to
vote," simply because that
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citizen was a woman and not a man . . . . As then the slaves who got
their freedom had to take it over or under or through the unjust forms of
the law, precisely so now must women take it to get their right to a
voice in this government; and I have taken mine, and mean to take it at
every 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 interpretation of the constitution and its recent
amendments, which should declare all United States citizens under its
protecting aegis . . . . But failing to get this justice, failing even to get a
trial by a jury-not of my peers-I ask not leniency at your-hands but
rather the full rigor of the law.
JUDGE HUNT-The Court must insist (here the prisoner sat down). The
prisoner will stand up. (Here Miss Anthony rose again.) The sentence
of the Court is that you pay a fine of $100.00 and the costs of the
prosecution.

Miss ANTHONY-May it please your Honor, I will never pay a dollar
of your unjust penalty . . . . And I shall earnestly and persistently
continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old
Revolutionary maxim, "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."
JUDGE HUNT-Madam, the Court will not order you stand committed
until the fine is paid.
Miss Anthony did not pay her fine and was never imprisoned. I believe
the fine stands against her to this day.
On the heels of this sensation came another of those dramatic protests
which until the very end she always combined with political agitation.
The nation was celebrating its first centenary of the signing of the
Declaration of Independence at Independence Square, Philadelphia.
After women had been refused by all in authority a humble half
moment in which to present to the Centennial the Women's Declaration
of Rights,
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Miss Anthony insisted on being heard. Immediately after the
Declaration of Independence had been read by a patriot, she led a
committee of women, who with platform tickets had slipped through
the military, straight down the center aisle of the platform to address
the chairman, who pale with fright and powerless to stop the
demonstration had to accept her document. Instantly the platform,
graced