History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II

by Unknown

The case of Miss Susan B. Anthony seems to be dismissed with a laugh by most of the press; but from the first institution of a prosecution against her under the Ku-Klux law, we have regarded the proceeding as one in which the injustice was not cloaked by the absurdity. The law was passed by Congress on a political cry that massacre and outrage menaced negroes at the polls in the Southern States, and now we have it used to oppress a woman in Rochester, New York. We are not debarred from saying "oppressed" because the judge left the fine to be levied on her property instead of imprisoning her person—in a State in which women have, we suppose, long been exempt from imprisonment for debt. But the chief outrage in the case is that it affords the first case, we believe, in the United States, or anywhere in modern times, of a conviction for a crime when there was no criminal intent. The proof, or the presumption of this, is essential to a crime in the criminal law of every civilized nation. The case of Miss Anthony was that of a lady who believed that the much vaunted amendments of the Federal Constitution extended to white women; and many lawyers and Congressmen have also avowed this opinion. We do not hold it, but we do not doubt that Miss Anthony does, very sincerely. We think as the Judge says in her case, that the Federal Constitution has nothing to do with the matter; that is wholly regulated by the Constitution of New York. But every word of his argument was equally strong to show that he, a Federal Judge, had nothing to do with the matter, and that it wholly belonged to the courts of New York. They know, we presume, no law that can create a crime without a criminal intention, and we deny the right of Congress or any earthly authority to pass so monstrous a law. Every day in criminal courts that point arises. If a man charged with larceny is proved to have taken the goods of another, but under some idea that he had a right to them, no matter how erroneous, the criminal prosecution is instantly dismissed. Our eminent jurist, Judge King, used to say: "This is a civil suit run mad." Has any citizen of Philadelphia supposed that if there is a doubt as to his right to vote—one of those numerous doubts that arise in changes of residence, time of registration, naturalization, etc.—and wishing scrupulously to do right, he go to the window and fully and fairly state his case, and the election officers consider it, and adjudge that he should vote then and there, has any citizen heretofore known that he thus became liable to conviction for a crime under the Ku-Klux laws, if some judge of a court should think the election officers decided the point erroneously?

Yet that is the doctrine of Miss Anthony's case. Her garb and person sufficed to tell she was a woman when she approached the polls, and there was also argument over the matter, exhibiting afresh the fact notorious at her home, that she claimed a lawful right to vote under certain amendments of the Constitution. She was no repeater or false personator, or probably she would not be persecuted, and certainly she would be pardoned.

She submitted her right to the election officers, and they, the judges appointed by the law, decided in her favor. It is just the case we have supposed in Philadelphia, and which often really occurs here, and may occur anywhere. And now we are told the Ku-Klux law makes this hitherto laudable and innocent mode of procedure a crime, punishable with fine and imprisonment! This is the decision over which many journals are laughing because the first victim is a woman. We can not see the joke.

[Chicago Evening Journal, Dec. 1, 1874].

Mrs. Myra Bradwell, the editor and publisher of the Legal News, of this city, is a warm advocate of woman's rights. In the last number of the News, speaking of Susan B. Anthony, she declares that Judge Ward Hunt, of the Federal bench, "violated the Constitution of the United States more, to convict her of illegal voting, than she did in voting, for he had sworn to support it, she had not."

Sister Myra is evidently not afraid of being hauled up for contempt of court.

[St. Louis Daily Globe, Thursday, June 26, 1873].

MISS ANTHONY'S CASE.

JUDGE HUNT'S DECISION REVIEWED—SHE HAD A RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL.

Editor of St. Louis Globe:—I ask the favor of a small space in your paper to notice the very remarkable decision of Judge Hunt, in the case of the United States vs. Susan B. Anthony.