he judge
asking, "Has the prisoner any thing to say why sentence shall not
be pronounced?" Neither as judge, nor as attorney, nor as jury was
I allowed any person who could be legitimately called my peer to
speak for me.

Then, as you will remember, Mr. Justice Hunt not only pronounced
the verdict of guilty, but a sentence of $100 fine and costs of
prosecution. I said to him, "May it please your honor, I do not
propose to pay it;" and I never have paid it, and I never shall. I
asked your honorable bodies of Congress the next year--in 1874--to
pass a resolution to remit that fine. Both Houses refused it; the
committees reported against it; though through Benjamin F. Butler,
in the House, and a member of your committee, and Matthew H.
Carpenter, in the Senate, there were plenty of precedents brought
forward to show that in the cases of multitudes of men fines had
been remitted. I state this merely to show the need of woman to
speak for herself, to be as judge, to be as juror.

Mr. Justice Hunt in his opinion stated that suffrage was a
fundamental right, and therefore a right that belonged to the
State. It seemed to me that was just as much of a retroversion
of the theory of what is right in our Government as there could
possibly be. Then, after the decision in my case came that of Mrs.
Minor, of Missouri. She prosecuted the officers there for denying
her the right to vote. She carried her case up to your Supreme
Court, and the Supreme Court answered her the same way; that the
amendments were made for black men; that their provisions could
not protect women; that the Constitution of the United States has
no voters of its own.

Mrs. SPENCER. And you remember Judge Cartier's decision in my
case.

Miss ANTHONY. Mr. Cartier said that women are citizens and may be
qualified, &c., but that it requires some sort of legislation to
give them the right to vote.

The Congress of the United States notwithstanding, and the Supreme
Court of the United States notwithstanding, with all deference and
respect, I differ with them all, and know that I am right and that
they are wrong. The Constitution of the United States as it
is protects me. If I could get a practical application of the
Constitution it would protect me and all women in the enjoyment
of perfect equality of rights e