d States citizen to vote," and that of Mrs. Gage, "The United
States on trial, not Susan B. Anthony," were most effective in rousing
general thought on the vital principles of republican government, and
did much toward enlightening the possible jury in the coming trial.

The last meeting of the series was held at Canandaigua on the evening
before the trial. Strong resolutions against these acts of injustice
toward woman were introduced by Mrs. Gage, and unanimously indorsed by
the audience. Thus the case went to trial with ample opportunity for
the District Attorney and the Judge to know the opinions of the
people, and for the men of Ontario to be too generally enlightened on
the subject to find any twelve who could be trusted to bring in a
verdict of guilty against the women for voting, or the inspectors for
receiving their votes.

The following is the argument which Miss Anthony made in twenty-nine
of the post office-districts of Monroe, and twenty-one of Ontario, in
her canvass of those counties, prior to her trial, June 17, 1873:

FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS:--I stand before you to-night, under
indictment for the alleged crime of having voted illegally at the
last Presidential election. I shall endeavor this evening to
prove to you that in voting, I not only committed no crime, but
simply exercised my "citizen's right," guaranteed to me and all
United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the
power of any State to deny.

Our democratic republican government is based on the idea of the
natural right of every individual member thereof to a voice and a
vote in making and executing the laws. We assert the province of
government to be to secure the people in the enjoyment of their
inalienable rights. We throw to the winds the old dogma that
governments can give rights. Before governments were organized,
no one denies that each individual possessed the right to protect
his own life, liberty, and property. And when 100 or 1,000,000
people enter into a free government, they do not barter away
their natural rights; they simply pledge themselves to protect
each other in the enjoyment of them, through prescribed judicial
and legislative tribunals. They agree to abandon the methods of
brute force in the adjustment of their differences, and adopt
those of civilization. The Declaration of Independence, the