midst of these harassing circumstances Miss Anthony made the
usual preparations for holding the annual woman suffrage convention in
Washington, January 16 and 17, 1873, and presided over its
deliberations. In her opening speech she said:

There are three methods of extending suffrage to new classes. The
first is for the legislatures of the several States to submit the
question to those already voters. Before the war this was the only
way thought of, and during all those years we petitioned the
legislatures to submit an amendment striking the word "male" from
the suffrage clause of the State constitutions. The second method
is for Congress to submit to the several legislatures a proposition
for a Sixteenth Amendment which shall prohibit the States from
depriving women citizens of their right to vote. The third plan is
for women to take their right under the Fourteenth Amendment of the
National Constitution, which declares that all persons are
citizens, and no State shall deny or abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens.

Again, there are two ways of securing the right of suffrage under
the Constitution as it is, one by a declaratory act of Congress
instructing the officers of election to receive the votes of women;
the other by bringing suits before the courts, as women already
have done, in order to secure a judicial decision on the broad
interpretation of the Constitution that all persons are citizens,
and all citizens voters. The vaults in yonder Capitol hold the
petitions of 100,000 women for a declaratory act, and the calendars
of our courts show that many are already testing their right to
vote under the Fourteenth Amendment. I stand here under indictment
for having exercised my right as a citizen to vote at the last
election; and by a fiction of the law, I am now in custody and not
a free person on this platform.

Among the forcible resolutions adopted were one asserting "that States
may regulate all local questions of property, taxation, etc., but the
inalienable personal rights of citizenship must be declared by the
Constitution, interpreted by the Supreme Court, protected by Congress,
and enforced by the arm of the Executive;" and another declaring "that
the criminal prosecution of Susan B. Anthony by the United States, for
the alleged crime of exercising the citizen's right of suffrage, is an
act