Letter on Women's Right to Vote
From: Susan B. Anthony
To: Elizabeth Cady Stanton
November 5, 1872
Rochester, New York
Letter Content
My dear Mrs. Stanton,
I have done it! Today I cast my ballot in the presidential election. If the Constitution says 'We the People,' then I am one of the people and I have the right to vote.
I went to the registration office last week with my three sisters and several other women from the neighborhood. The inspectors hesitated, but I read them the Fourteenth Amendment, which declares that all persons born in the United States are citizens, and that no state may abridge the privileges of citizens. I asked them: 'Are women persons? Are women citizens?' They could not deny it, and so they registered us.
This morning, we went to the polls and voted without incident. The inspectors accepted our ballots. I voted for General Grant, though my conscience stirred at supporting a man who has done nothing for women's suffrage.
I expect there will be consequences. They may try to arrest me, to make an example of me. But let them! A trial will only draw more attention to our cause. Let them explain to the American people why a woman who is required to pay taxes and obey laws should have no voice in making those laws.
We are citizens. We will be heard. The day of our full equality is coming, though it may take longer than either of us will live to see.
Yours in the struggle,
Susan B. Anthony
Historical Context
Susan B. Anthony was indeed arrested two weeks after voting in the 1872 presidential election. She was convicted and fined $100, which she refused to pay. The trial brought national attention to the women's suffrage movement.
Significance
Anthony's act of civil disobedience became a defining moment in the fight for women's suffrage. Though she died in 1906, fourteen years before women won the right to vote, her arrest and trial galvanized the movement and made her an icon of American reform.