Account of the Proceedings of the Trial of Susan B. Anthony…, An.
“THE CRIME CONSISTS NOT IN THE ACT DONE,
BUT IN THE SIMPLE FACT THAT THE PERSON DOING IT
WAS A WOMAN AND NOT A MAN”
HON. HENRY H. SELDEN, DEFENSE LAWYER FOR
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
Anthony, Susan B. An Account of the Proceedings of the Trial of Susan B. Anthony, on the Charge of Illegal Voting, at the Presidential Election in Nov., 1872, and on the Trial of Beverly W. Jones, Edwin T. Marsh and William B. Hall, the Inspectors of Election by Whom the Vote Was Received. Rochester, N.Y.: Daily Democrat and Chronicle Book Print, 1874.
Thick 8vo.; printed wrappers, slightly frayed, chipped and stained; pages bright, covers show evidence of some shelf wear. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First, and only, edition of this 212-page book documenting the circumstances surrounding Anthony’s 1873 trial for illegal voting. The preface explains: “At the election of President and Vice President of the United States, and members of Congress, in 1872, Susan B. Anthony, and several other women, offered their votes to the inspectors of election, claiming the right to vote, as among the privileges and immunities secured to them as citizens by the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” Anthony was promptly arrested, thus becoming the first woman in U.S. history to be charged with this crime. Also arrested were the three election officials who technically “accepted” Anthony’s invalid vote—including one (a Mr. Hall) who had vociferously objected to his co-worker’s decision to tally Anthony’s ballot! Anthony was found guilty—the very partial judge in the case ordered a directed verdict—and was fined $100.
This book, published in Rochester, home of the trial, prints Anthony’s 82-page indictment; her speech on receiving the sentence (82-151); statements by Anthony’s various defense lawyers; statements by the prosecution; numerous ascerbic statements by the judge; and statements by the election workers who were also charged. “To preserve a full record of so important a judicial determination, and to enable the friends of the convicted parties to understand precisely the degree of criminality which attaches to them in consequence of these convictions, the following pamphlet [sic] has been prepared...” [vii].
A handsome copy of a scarce Anthony item, containing pages upon pages of unreprinted arguments in support of woman’s suffrage, including Anthony’s fiery statement to the judge:
Yes, your honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a citizen to that of a subject; and not only myself individually, but all of my sex, are, by your honor’s verdict, doomed to political subjection under this, so-called, form of government.
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