st six
ballots.

This evidence would undoubtedly warrant the conclusion that Miss Anthony
voted for a Congressional representative, the fact probably appearing,
although the papers before the writer do not show it, that one of the
supposed ballots was placed by her direction in the box for votes for
Members of Congress. The facts are thus minutely stated, not at all for
the purpose of questioning their sufficiency, but to show how entirely
it was a question of fact, and therefore a question for the jury.

Upon this evidence Judge Hunt directed the clerk to enter up a verdict
of guilty. The counsel for the defendant interposed, but without effect,
the judge closing the discussion by saying, "Take the verdict, Mr.
Clerk." The clerk then said, "Gentlemen of the jury, hearken to your
verdict, as the Court has recorded it. You say you find the defendant
guilty of the offence whereof she stands indicted, and so say you all."
To this the jury made no response, and were immediately after dismissed.

It is stated in one of the public papers, by a person present at the
trial, that immediately after the dismissal of the jury, one of the
jurors said to him that that was not his verdict, nor that of the rest,
and that if he could have spoken he should have answered "Not guilty,"
and that other jurors would have sustained him in it. The writer has no
authority for this statement, beyond the letter mentioned. The juror, of
course, had a right, when the verdict was read by the clerk, to declare
that it was not his verdict, but it is not strange, perhaps, that an
ordinary juror, with no time to consider, or to consult with his
fellows, and probably ignorant of his rights, and in awe of the Court,
should have failed to assert himself at such a moment.

Probably the assumption by the judge that Miss Anthony in fact voted,
did her no real injustice, as it was a notorious fact that she did vote,
and claimed the right to do so. But all this made it no less an
usurpation for the judge to take the case from the jury, and order a
verdict of guilty to be entered up without consulting them.

There was, however, a real injustice done her by the course of the
judge, inasmuch as the mere fact of her voting, and voting unlawfully,
was not enough for her conviction. It is a perfectly settled rule of law
that there must exist an intention to do an illegal act, to make an act
a crime. It is, of course, not necessary that a person perpetrating a
cri