ved did not, however, apply to
women alone, but to all persons alike. Where the rights of the most
insignificant or humble are outraged those of all are endangered. The
decisions in these cases are the more remarkable since they were based
on the most ultra State Rights doctrine, and yet were rendered in
every instance by members of the Republican party which held its
position by reason of its recent success against the extreme demands
of State sovereignty. The right of women to vote under national
protection was but the logical result of the political guarantees of
the war, and Republican leaders should have been anxious to clinch
their war record by legislative and judicial decisions.

But a more thorough recognition of the State Rights theory never was
presented than in the proceedings of this Judge of the Supreme Court
in his verdict against Miss Anthony, nor a more absolute exhibition of
National power in State affairs than his decision in the case of the
Inspectors, who were State officers, working under State authority and
State laws, and not under authority derived from the Constitution of
the United States, but who were tried by an United States judge, and
punished for what was held as a crime against the State of New York--a
monstrous usurpation of National authority! Each of these trials was,
in its way, an example of authority overriding law, and an evidence of
the danger to the liberties of the people from a practically
irresponsible judiciary. Men need to feel their indebtedness and their
responsibility to those who place them in position; first, in order to
preserve them from despotism; and, second, that they may be removed
when infirmity demands the substitution of a competent person in their
place.

Although for a period little has been said in regard to the
usurpations of the judiciary, a time will come in the history of the
country when the course of Justice Hunt will be recalled as a
dangerous precedent.

It was more than a year after Miss Anthony's trial was completed
before her case received notice in the chief legal journal of the
State of New York. At that time, in an article entitled, "Can a Judge
Direct a Verdict of Guilty?"[173] Judge Hunt's course in refusing to
poll the jury was reviewed and condemned as contrary to justice and
law. To Mrs. Gage's review of this article, the _Law Journal_ said,
"If Mrs. Gage and Miss Anthony are not pleased with our laws, they had
better emigrate." This