United States v. Susan B. Anthony

United States v. Susan B. Anthony was a landmark 1873 criminal trial in which the famed suffragist Susan B. Anthony was prosecuted for voting in the 1872 United States presidential election. The case tested the legal interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment as a source of voting rights for women. Presided over by Ward Hunt, a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the trial resulted in Anthony's conviction, a pivotal moment that galvanized the women's suffrage movement and highlighted the systemic barriers to women's rights in the Gilded Age.

Background and indictment

In the aftermath of the American Civil War, the Reconstruction era produced constitutional amendments aimed at securing rights for freedmen. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, introduced the concept of citizenship and equal protection, while the Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited voting discrimination based on race. Leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton argued these amendments implicitly or explicitly enfranchised women. On November 5, 1872, Anthony and a group of women, including her sisters Mary and Hannah, registered and voted in Rochester, challenging local officials like Beverly W. Jones and William B. Hall. Their actions were a deliberate test case orchestrated with the advice of their lawyer, Henry R. Selden. Federal authorities, under the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant and United States Attorney Richard Crowley, invoked the Enforcement Act of 1870, a law designed to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment, to indict Anthony for "knowingly, wrongfully, and unlawfully" voting. The grand jury for the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of New York returned the indictment on January 24, 1873.

Trial and defense

The trial began on June 17, 1873, at the Ontario County courthouse in Canandaigua before Ward Hunt, a recently appointed Supreme Court Justice riding circuit. Richard Crowley prosecuted for the government, while Anthony was represented by Henry R. Selden, with assistance from John Van Voorhis. Selden's defense centered on the Fourteenth Amendment, arguing that Anthony, as a citizen, was entitled to the "privileges and immunities" of citizenship, which included the right to vote. He cited recent judicial opinions and the earlier Minor v. Happersett case then pending before the Supreme Court of the United States. Anthony herself delivered a powerful, pre-sentencing address directly to Judge Hunt, invoking the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution's preamble, arguing she was tried by laws made by a government in which she had no voice. Hunt, however, had already written his opinion before hearing the defense and directed the jury to return a guilty verdict, refusing to poll the jurors individually.

Verdict and aftermath

Following Judge Hunt's directed verdict, the jury found Anthony guilty on June 18, 1873. When asked by Hunt if she had anything to say before sentencing, Anthony famously replied, "Yes, your honor, I have many things to say," and condemned the proceedings as a "trampling upon every vital principle of our government." Hunt sentenced her to pay a fine of $100 plus court costs. Anthony defiantly stated she would never pay "a penny of your unjust penalty," and the government never pursued collection, ensuring she could not appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court of the United States. The other women who voted were also arrested, but only Anthony was brought to trial, making her a singular martyr for the cause. The case generated extensive coverage in newspapers like The New York Times and fueled lecture tours by Anthony and her ally Matilda Joslyn Gage, who published accounts of the trial to rally public support for suffrage.

Legal and historical significance

The trial was a decisive legal defeat for the New Departure strategy, which argued the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments granted women voting rights. The following year, in Minor v. Happersett (1875), the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled that citizenship did not confer a right to vote, cementing the judicial precedent against which suffragists would fight for decades. The prosecution underscored the need for a separate constitutional amendment, shifting movement strategy toward what would eventually become the Nineteenth Amendment. The case elevated Susan B. Anthony to iconic status within the National Woman Suffrage Association and later the National American Woman Suffrage Association, framing civil disobedience as a legitimate tactic. It remains a critical episode in the history of civil disobedience in the United States, illustrating the intersection of gender, law, and political protest during Reconstruction.

Category:1873 in American law Category:United States suffrage case law Category:Trials in New York (state)