Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.
The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:
"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.
The sentence in this excerpt from Susan B. Anthony's "On Women's Right to Vote" that reveals the purpose of the speech is:
"It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny."
Explanation:
After being tried and fined for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872, Susan B Anthony gave this speech to prove that, according to the preamble of the Federal Constitution women had the same right to vote as men and they were to be considered equal as men.
She explained that the Constitution says "we, the people" which includes not only men of America, but also its women as a part of the word people of the society. Therefore, her casting a ballot was not only not illegal, but it was a right that no state should have the power to deny.
