Preview

On Women's Right to Vote by Susan. B Anthony

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
603 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
On Women's Right to Vote by Susan. B Anthony
Susan. B Anthony- On women's right to vote
In the 1800s, women in the United States had few legal rights and did not have the right to vote. This speech was given by Susan B. Anthony after her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872. She was tried and then fined $100 but refused to pay. | | |

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 tranquillity, 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.
For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Susan Brownell Anthony was born in February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts and died at the age of 86 in March 13, 1906 in Rochester, New York. Susan was a social reformer and feminist who played an important role in the women’s suffrage movement. She started collecting anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, and Alice Paul all are household names, and the former has secured her place on the American silver dollar. Anthony is known for her role in the foundation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, or NAWSA, an organization that she eventually became the second president of. Born in 1820, she grew up in a Quaker family, her ideals grounded in the belief that women, in all aspects, should be equal to men. In 1853, she joined a campaign to extend women’s property rights, but after the Civil War, she refused to support any amendments giving African-Americans the right to vote unless it also granted the vote to their women counterparts. A statue of her with fellow suffragettes Elizabeth…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Jerry Toner’s book The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino: Understanding the Roman Games, the reader is introduced into the violent, blood thirsty society that is the Roman Empire. In the prologue to the book, Toner writes “One modern writer described these ‘bloodthirsty human holocausts’ as ‘by far the nastiest blood-sport ever invented. He claimed that ‘the two most quantitatively destructive institutions in History are Nazism and the Roman Gladiators’.” The Roman Empire, as a whole, was a violent society. Their violence though, was something that was celebrated and embodied by Romans. In Jerry Toner’s book The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino: Understanding the Roman Games, it becomes evident through the Romans “bread and circus” society, that being…

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Susan B. Anthony wants the best for america, it's her home, but america won't be a good union if not everyone isn't included in it, and has the same equal rights. For one thing, “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.” Anthony, 1. Everyone is a living human being with the same 10 characteristics of life! So why aren't women treated the same? The union wouldn't be what they are if everyone did not help form it or put in effort. What lead to this was the women and every race not being able to vote and women getting looked down upon on. To form a more perfect union they need to “...establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, …” Anthony, 1. This is saying that…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many women in the suffrage movement contributed to achieve women’s rights today, but some became leaders, being the driving force behind the revolution.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    | Susan B. Anthony stands up for her gender and fights for women’s right to vote.…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Both, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were women activist. Women suffrage movement took on the toughest issue of that era. The right to vote neglected women Stanton and Anthony made it their life's work to achieve the veto for women. Their leadership, "In 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), the First independent women's rights organization in the United States, to fight for the vote for women."(493) Political women were not recognized however, their roles as wife and mother bonded them in unity.…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.” -Susan B. Anthony (Brainyquote.com) American women deserved the vote earlier than August 18th, 1920 for three reasons: they had worked and fought for it for a long time; other countries had already given women the right to vote; and women should have equal rights per the Bible and American Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Powerful suffragettes like Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony had been working hard for the vote for a long time before they received it. Intriguingly, eleven countries had already given women the vote before America.…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When, Susan B. Anthony (one of the first suffragettes), got the “crazy” notion to be able to have an opinion on political matters, men’s pride was about to pick a fight with one of the strongest forces this world has ever known, woman. When first brought to Congress in 1848, it wasn’t even thought about. No was the only response for such an absurd notion. However, women were just getting started. They marched…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article “Susan B. Anthony dares to vote” and the play “The Watsons go to birmingham” the theme of both texts is perseverance. They show it in many different ways though like in the article she goes against the law to get her rights for being a woman and in the play Watson's try to fight for blacks rights when they go to back to Alabama. A difference they have is the characters actions in “Susan B. Anthony Dares to Vote” white people want to send her to jail, but in “The Watson’s go to Birmingham” white people bomb black churches and other black places. So as one can see there is a difference in the characters actions.…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Susan B. Anthony was fearless. She was never afraid to speak out and say what she knew to be right. She campaigned to prohibit alcohol sale, slavery, and women’s suffrage against popular opinions and beliefs. On November 5, 1872, the day of the presidential election, Susan went to vote in front of a parlor. She was then arrested and given a $100 fine that she would never pay. Susan B. Anthony had nerve, and she wasn’t going to let anyone tell her what to do and that’s why she was a great leader. She had an idea and she wouldn’t let anyone get in her…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Anthony after being arrested for voting illegally in the presidential election of 1872 Anthony delivered this speech believing she did no wrong but was she intended to prove to the citizens that she was actually doing what the national constitution stated. At the presentation of her speech there was many people from Europe and also other women’s activist, which later on carried on the suffrage. After her trial Anthony gained a lot of attention and more people began to become interested in the topic of women’s suffrage. Prior her trial she began to speak about the reasons she voted she wanted to inform other men and her supporters. At the time when this speech was delivered, it was when the Fourteenth Amendment had just been passed, giving black men the right to vote, but withholding it from women’s.…

    • 1570 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author states that “It was we, the people; not we, the whiteman citizens,nor yet we, the male citizenslbut we, the whole people, who formed the Union. It is directly noticeable that the sentence is composed of number of semi colon. And it is connected by number of contradictory conjunctions. This emphasized all the misunderstandings and defects of the society, and strengthen the argument that were followed by the previous defects. Her statement targetted not only the minority with power, but also all the others who are American Citizens. By placing every people in an equal position whether male or female, black or white, the author emphasized the unity and potential output that the “union” could acheive (“-women as well as men”). Also, the author mentioned right, and responsibility, which are two concepts that always follow. She claimed that the fact that women are denied in the most important way of exercising sovereignty,is “downright mockery”. These statements, targetted to all American Citizens, made the targetted audiences to feel as if they are part of her arguement and provoked the actions for…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women’s Suffrage started in 1848 and wasn’t considered over until 1920 when they 19th Amendment was passed by Congress; giving women the right to vote. However, there are still many people today that would disagree since in many cases women still aren’t equal to men. This paper will cover five aspects of Women Suffrage: the women of the movement, their views, the fight, support and troubles to victory, and the years after.…

    • 2491 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In most modern governments, such as the United States of America, give the right to vote to almost every responsible adult citizen. There were limiters on the right to vote when the US Constitution was written, and the individual states were allowed to setup their own rules governing who was allowed to vote. Women were denied the right to vote until the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution which was passed in 1920. In order to understand how women struggled to obtain the right to vote, some key factors must be looked at in further detail; why suffrage rights were not defined in the Constitution, the efforts that women put forth to obtain the right to vote, why there are present-day restrictions on voting, and the implications of Suffrage in current political policy.…

    • 2809 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays