Famous Speeches: Susan B. Anthony “Are Women Persons?”

(238 words)

Susan B. Anthony had been arrested for voting in Rochester, New York in the 1872 elections, violating state laws that allowed only men to vote. During her criminal trial, Anthony argued that she had the right to vote because the recently adopted Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution read, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” On the final day of the trial, Judge Hunt asked Anthony if she had anything to say. She responded with the most famous speech in the history of the agitation for women’s suffrage.

The Speech (excerpted)

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:

“We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people—women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this Democratic-Republican government—the ballot.

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/anthony.htm