1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:13,400 Speaker 1: show that tallies the wins and losses of everyday history. 4 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:19,159 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier, and today we're examining the evidence in 5 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: the historic case of the United States versus Susan B. Anthony. 6 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:38,160 Speaker 1: The day was June eighteenth, eighteen seventy three. American suffragist 7 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:41,920 Speaker 1: Susan B. Anthony was found guilty of voting illegally in 8 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:47,160 Speaker 1: the eighteen seventy two presidential election. Although most American women 9 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: wouldn't be granted the right to vote until nineteen twenty, 10 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 1: Susan B. Anthony and fourteen others cast their ballots in Rochester, 11 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:58,960 Speaker 1: New York, nearly fifty years earlier. All fifteen of the 12 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: women were later arrested and charged, but Anthony's high profile 13 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,800 Speaker 1: case was the only one that went to trial. At 14 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:10,000 Speaker 1: a courthouse in upstate New York. The following year, she 15 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:13,160 Speaker 1: was convicted by an all male jury and sentenced to 16 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:17,480 Speaker 1: pay a fine of one hundred dollars plus court costs. Anthony, 17 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:20,560 Speaker 1: who had been barred from testifying during the trial, was 18 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:24,280 Speaker 1: allowed to make a final statement following her conviction, she 19 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:28,000 Speaker 1: used the opportunity to deliver a fiery and now famous 20 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:32,080 Speaker 1: rebuke of the nation's one sided legal system. She then 21 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:34,960 Speaker 1: concluded by telling the judge that she would never pay 22 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,920 Speaker 1: a penny of his unjust penalty, and true to her word, 23 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: she never did. Susan Brownell Anthony was a lifelong crusader 24 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 1: for a number of social causes, including temperance, abolition, and 25 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: labor rights, but she's best remembered today for her outsized 26 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: role in the women's suffrage movement of the mid nineteenth century. 27 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:01,200 Speaker 1: Anthony devoted more than fifty years of her life to 28 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: trying to secure the right to vote for American women. 29 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:08,079 Speaker 1: During the Reconstruction era, She and her allies in Congress 30 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: pushed for that right to be enshrined in either the 31 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,560 Speaker 1: fourteenth or the fifteenth Amendments, but in the end both 32 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:19,240 Speaker 1: were ratified without conferring suffrage to women. In the wake 33 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:23,239 Speaker 1: of those setbacks, Anthony and fourteen others turned to civil 34 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:27,600 Speaker 1: disobedience to help get their point across. On November fifth, 35 00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:30,519 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy two, they showed up at the polls to 36 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:35,920 Speaker 1: vote in that year's presidential election between Republican incumbent Ulysses S. Grant, 37 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: and Democratic challenger Horace Greeley. The women's votes were symbolic gestures, 38 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: since none of them were actually counted, but for the record, 39 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:50,440 Speaker 1: Anthony cast her ballot for President Grant. Two weeks later, 40 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:54,120 Speaker 1: a US marshal approached Anthony and politely asked that she 41 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: surrender herself at the local precinct. The activists maintained she 42 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:01,480 Speaker 1: had done nothing wrong, but insisted that if she was 43 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 1: going to be arrested, she at least be arrested properly, 44 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:08,400 Speaker 1: in the same way as a man. The request was granted, 45 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: and Anthony was arrested there at her home, then taken 46 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: into custody and charged with illegal voting. Anthony's bail, as 47 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:20,040 Speaker 1: well as that of her fourteen voting accomplices, was set 48 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:23,919 Speaker 1: at five hundred dollars each, the equivalent of about thirteen 49 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:28,079 Speaker 1: thousand dollars in today's money. All of the other women 50 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:32,040 Speaker 1: paid up, but Anthony refused on principle and was ultimately 51 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:35,920 Speaker 1: bailed out against her wishes by her lawyer, Henry Selden. 52 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: As you might imagine, the arrest of the women's movement's 53 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,400 Speaker 1: most prominent figure created quite a stir in the press, 54 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:46,840 Speaker 1: and Anthony was able to use that publicity to draw 55 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: more attention to her cause. In the lead up to 56 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 1: her trial, she gave public lectures in twenty nine different 57 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:57,760 Speaker 1: towns calling for women's suffrage and posing the question is 58 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:00,640 Speaker 1: it a crime for a citizen of the United States 59 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: to vote? In her speeches, Anthony argued that although the 60 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 1: fourteenth Amendment didn't specifically mention voting rights, it did prevent 61 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:13,200 Speaker 1: the government from making or enforcing a law that deprives 62 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,719 Speaker 1: a US citizen of their privileges, and in her view, 63 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:20,000 Speaker 1: that meant that women had a constitutional right to vote 64 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: in federal elections because the amendment didn't say that the 65 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:29,279 Speaker 1: privileges of citizenship only applied to men. Anthony, who pleaded 66 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: not guilty, was hoping to testify to the same effect 67 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: at her trial, but she was never given the chance. 68 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:40,799 Speaker 1: The presiding judge, Ward Hunt, barred her from testifying, claiming 69 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:43,880 Speaker 1: that she had already outlined her argument well enough during 70 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 1: her public appearances. Instead, she would have to rely on 71 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:50,720 Speaker 1: her lawyer and other witnesses to do the talking for her. 72 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: The defense's main argument echoed Anthony's belief that she had 73 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 1: the right to cast a legal vote due to the 74 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:03,600 Speaker 1: recently enacted Fourteenth Men. Furthermore, Selden argued that even if 75 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,600 Speaker 1: the court decided that the amendment did not grant her 76 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: that right, Anthony had credible reason to believe that it did, 77 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 1: and therefore she couldn't be guilty of knowingly casting an 78 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:17,800 Speaker 1: illegal ballot. Near the end of the first day of 79 00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:21,240 Speaker 1: the trial, once both sides had had their say, Judge 80 00:05:21,279 --> 00:05:25,120 Speaker 1: Hart did something that Anthony would later describe as quote 81 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:30,720 Speaker 1: the greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded. The judge 82 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:34,120 Speaker 1: read a written statement, which he had apparently prepared before 83 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:38,440 Speaker 1: the trial even began, laying out Anthony's supposed crimes and 84 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: dismissing the argument that she had cast her ballot and 85 00:05:41,279 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: good faith. To the shock of everyone in the courtroom 86 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: that day, Hunt concluded his statement by instructing the jury 87 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:53,840 Speaker 1: to find Anthony guilty. He said, quote, upon this evidence, 88 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:56,919 Speaker 1: I suppose there is no question for the jury, and 89 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,719 Speaker 1: that the jury should be directed to find a verdict 90 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:04,440 Speaker 1: of guilty. On the second day of the trial, June eighteenth, 91 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 1: Selden argued for a mistrial on the ground that Anthony's 92 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:11,720 Speaker 1: constitutional right to a trial by jury had been violated. 93 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 1: The previous day. Unsurprisingly, Judge Hunt immediately denied the motion. 94 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:21,120 Speaker 1: He then declared Anthony guilty of voting without the right 95 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:24,560 Speaker 1: to do so. But before passing his sentence, he asked 96 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:29,520 Speaker 1: at last if she had anything to say in her defense. Yes, 97 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:33,280 Speaker 1: your honor, Anthony replied, I have many things to say, 98 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:37,000 Speaker 1: for in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled 99 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:41,760 Speaker 1: underfoot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, 100 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,760 Speaker 1: my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights are 101 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:50,840 Speaker 1: all alike ignored, robbed of the fundamental privilege of citizenship. 102 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: I am degraded from the status of a citizen to 103 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: that of a subject, and not only myself individually, but 104 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:01,720 Speaker 1: all of my sex are, by your honors verdict doomed 105 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:06,280 Speaker 1: to political subjection under this so called form of government. 106 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: The judge interrupted Anthony multiple times during her response, insisting, 107 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:14,920 Speaker 1: despite all evidence to the contrary, that she had been 108 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:22,640 Speaker 1: tried according to the established forms of law. Anthony responded again, saying, quote, yes, 109 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,880 Speaker 1: your honor, but by forms of law all made by men, 110 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: interpreted by men, administered by men in favor of men 111 00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:34,160 Speaker 1: and against women, and hence your honors ordered verdict of 112 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: guilty against a United States citizen for the exercise of 113 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:41,480 Speaker 1: that citizen's right to vote, simply because that citizen was 114 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:44,679 Speaker 1: a woman and not a man. When I was brought 115 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: before your honor for trial, I hoped for a broad 116 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:51,560 Speaker 1: and liberal interpretation of the Constitution and its recent amendments 117 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:55,800 Speaker 1: that should declare equality of rights the national guarantee to 118 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:59,720 Speaker 1: all persons born or naturalized in the United States. But 119 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,240 Speaker 1: failing to get this justice, failing even to get a 120 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:06,360 Speaker 1: trial by a jury not of my peers, I ask 121 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: not leniency at your hands, but rather the full rigors 122 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:15,720 Speaker 1: of the law. At that point, Judge Hunt pronounced his sentence, 123 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:19,040 Speaker 1: a fine of one hundred dollars and the costs of 124 00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:24,080 Speaker 1: the prosecution. Anthony wasn't invited to speak again, but she 125 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:28,119 Speaker 1: did anyway, telling the judge quote, may it please your honor, 126 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:31,200 Speaker 1: I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty, 127 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,960 Speaker 1: Not a penny shall go to this unjust claim. And 128 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:39,080 Speaker 1: I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women 129 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 1: to the practical recognition of the old revolutionary maxim that 130 00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: resistance to tyranny is obedience to God. Anthony's prompt refusal 131 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:53,360 Speaker 1: to comply with the Judge's sentence wasn't just knee jerk defiance. 132 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:57,040 Speaker 1: She was trying to goad Hunt into jailing her until 133 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:00,080 Speaker 1: she had paid the fine, a move that under the 134 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:02,959 Speaker 1: law of the day, would have enabled Anthony to appeal 135 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:07,920 Speaker 1: the ruling to a higher court. However, Judge Hunt realized 136 00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:10,800 Speaker 1: that was her aim and didn't take the bait, thus 137 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:15,200 Speaker 1: blocking her from appeal. The criminal trial may not have 138 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: gone her way, but Anthony was still the victor in 139 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 1: the court of public opinion. As one New York paper 140 00:09:21,679 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: observed in the aftermath, quote, if it is a mere 141 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,360 Speaker 1: question of who got the best of it, miss Anthony 142 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:31,319 Speaker 1: is still ahead. She has voted in the American constitution, 143 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:35,439 Speaker 1: has survived the shock finding her one hundred dollars does 144 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:38,520 Speaker 1: not rule out the fact that women voted and went 145 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:43,120 Speaker 1: home and the world jogged on as before. It was 146 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:46,160 Speaker 1: a similar case for the other parties involved as well. 147 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:49,840 Speaker 1: The other fourteen women who had voted in Rochester were 148 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:53,160 Speaker 1: allowed to go free without trial, and although the election 149 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:55,560 Speaker 1: inspectors who had allowed them to vote in the first 150 00:09:55,559 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: place were briefly jailed following their own trials, they were 151 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:04,360 Speaker 1: eventually pardoned by the newly re elected President grant. As 152 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:08,840 Speaker 1: for Susan B. Anthony, she lobbied unsuccessfully for Congress to 153 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:12,240 Speaker 1: cancel her fine, but she stopped short of seeking a 154 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:16,160 Speaker 1: presidential pardon. This is likely because she would have viewed 155 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:19,440 Speaker 1: accepting a pardon as an admission of guilt, and she 156 00:10:19,559 --> 00:10:23,640 Speaker 1: believed she did nothing wrong in the first place. That said, 157 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:28,640 Speaker 1: On August eighteenth, twenty twenty, Anthony was posthumously pardoned by 158 00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 1: President Donald Trump. Despite all the hard fought progress that 159 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:36,640 Speaker 1: was made during her lifetime, Susan B. Anthony never got 160 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:39,959 Speaker 1: the chance to cast a legal ballot. She passed away 161 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,800 Speaker 1: in nineteen o six, nine years before New York State 162 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:47,280 Speaker 1: granted women the right to vote, and fourteen years before 163 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:53,520 Speaker 1: the Nineteenth Amendment was finally ratified. Anthony once said that quote, 164 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,240 Speaker 1: woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but 165 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:01,480 Speaker 1: must be taught to protect herself. Her criminal trial bore 166 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:03,960 Speaker 1: out the truth of that, and because the whole nation 167 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: watched it all unfold, many other women learned the lesson too. 168 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:12,000 Speaker 1: As a result, more than eight million American women cast 169 00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:15,280 Speaker 1: their ballots in nineteen twenty, and now more than a 170 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 1: century later, tens of millions of women stand poised to 171 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:26,079 Speaker 1: do the same. I'm Gabe Blues Gay and hopefully you 172 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:29,280 Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you 173 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:32,440 Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show, 174 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:35,920 Speaker 1: you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at 175 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:40,599 Speaker 1: TDI HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions, 176 00:11:40,760 --> 00:11:43,080 Speaker 1: feel free to send them my way by writing to 177 00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:48,080 Speaker 1: This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kasby Bias 178 00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:50,680 Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. 179 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:54,000 Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day 180 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:59,200 Speaker 1: in History class.