Susan B. Anthony,
Defendant
An Account of the Proceedings
on
the Trial of Susan B. Anthony. . . .
Rochester: 1874
Rare Book & Special Collections
Division
[Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth
Cady Stanton]
Albumen print, ca. 1870s
Manuscript Division
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Susan B. Anthony's personal copy of An Account
of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony is one
of nearly four hundred items from her personal library of feminist
and antislavery literature that Anthony gave to the Library of
Congress in 1903.
At the trial, the judge penned his decision before
hearing the case (his first criminal case) and discharged the
jury because he maintained that there were no questions of fact
for them to consider. He found Anthony guilty of voting illegally,
fined her $100, and then made the mistake of asking her if she
had anything to say.
"Yes, your honor," seethed Anthony, "I have many
things to say; for in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have
trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My
natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial
rights, are all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privilege
of citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a citizen to
that of a subject; and not only myself individually, but all of
my sex, are, by your honor's verdict, doomed to political subjection
under this, so-called, form of government."
Anthony's copy of the Trial is inscribed
by her as a gift to the Library and has a number of items tipped
in after the text, including Anthony's petition to Congress seeking
remission of the fine and the congressional committee report denying
her request.
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