After Being Convicted Of Voting In The 1872 Presidential Election

[Warph]

I found this to be quite interesting.  Thought I'd pass it on.


After Being Convicted Of Voting In The 1872 Presidential Election --- Famous Speech by Susan B. Anthony
Stump Speech in all 29 postal districts of Monroe County, New York, in 1873

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.

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 withheld from women and their female posterity.

To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion
into every home of the nation.

Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.

http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/Susan-B-Anthony/index.htm

[sixdogsmom]

Yes, I believe the constitution meant all people; meaning all people no matter what sex, what color or what creed or origin. If and when there is a human being totally created in a test tube, then I believe the constitution covers that person also. Thank you Warph.

[pam]

Y'know my ancestors back both ways; being Celtic and Native valued women just as much as men. In ancient Ireland women ruled owned property and fought right along with the men. Same as the Native side. They were even slightly matriarchal. Personally I think the attitudes about woman are mostly "religious" in nature.

[Warph]

Good points, ladies.  My son is engaged to a promising young Lawyer who will be very involved with Women Studies and Womens Rights when she graduates.... and believe me, she never lets me forget the rights of women.  Example: when I'm invited over for dinner, I get a choice of either washing or drying the dishes after dessert.  I asked her why she didn't use the dishwasher.  Her reply was that it used twice the amount of water.... waste not, want not.  My son still insists that he'll be wearing the pants in the family.... uh huh... good luck, son.   

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_rights_of_women_in_history

[W. Gray]

The first constitution of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, was modeled on the Iroquois Nation.

There was a big difference between the two; the oral Iroquois constitution specifically recognized women as equals.

The Iroquois Nation was not a tribe but the name of a confederacy of six Indian tribes: Mohawks, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.

The Iroquois are described as the oldest living participatory democracy on earth.

There was equality of sexes and women held real power.

The clan chiefs were chosen by clan mothers and if any leader did not measure up, he faced removal by those mothers.

The Iroquois equivalent of the Supreme Court is the Women's Council, which settles disputes and judges legal violations.

There is a southeast Kansas connection here, sort of.

Kanzas was once part of Indian Territory and up to thirty eastern tribes were slated to be more or less forcibly moved here. Most were moved, a few were not. 

In the area immediately north of Elk County in Greenwood County and the counties extending on both sides was a former Indian reservation labeled on early Kansas maps as "New York Indian Lands."

This area was set aside for the Iroquois Nation and some other New York tribes.

Unlike the other tribes, only a few members of New York tribes ever made it to Kanzas as they were successful resisting the federal government.

[pam]

 I'm not one of those women that goes around talkin about what my rights are. Never occured to me that they WEREN"T mine. Nobody can "give" you what is already yours.
Actually me and my husband BOTH wear pants LOL. And Warph I generally do the dishes after everybody leaves I'd druther set and visit LOL