Description

An account of the landmark suffragist trial before the U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of New York, at Canandaigua in June 1873, that brought the cause of women's voting rights to the forefront of national attention in the United States. A group of women led by preeminent abolitionist and woman's rights advocate Susan B. Anthony [1820-1906], attempted to vote during the presidential election of 1872, claiming they were entitled to do so according to the Fourteenth Amendment. The presiding officials, Jones, Hall, and Marsh, decided by a majority to accept their ballots. The women were soon arrested for this act and indicted for "knowingly voting without having a lawful right to vote." The officials were also indicted. This volume reprints the text of the indictment and a transcript of the testimony with connecting commentary. The appendix offers an address by Anthony delivered before her trial, a speech on her behalf cause by Joslyn Gage, and a critical assessment of the trial by John Hooker. vii, 212 pp.