ndence,
so far as to make all men equal before the law; but women, our
mothers, our wives, our sisters, and our daughters, we condemn to
inequality--many to servitude. But the cry of women, who, in
poverty and want, are driven from the employments of honest
industry to indulgence in vice and to the haunts of shame, is
rising on every hand, and appeals to the heart with as much power
as the wailings of a slave beneath the lash of his master.

The wrongs of Martin Koszta in a foreign land touched the heart
of the nation. But the denial of her rights to Miss Susan B.
Anthony in a court of the Union is thought to be unworthy the
attention of the American Senate. To those who are indifferent
whether a woman be deprived of or be permitted to enjoy even the
rights which are secured to her by the Constitution, it may be
suggested that a bad precedent set in the trial of a woman who
has presumed to express her choice as to those who should make
laws for her, laws by which her rights are to be affected and her
property be taxed, may stand in the way of some man's rights
hereafter. It may yet happen, in the revolutions of time, that
some one of the majority of your committee may be subjected to an
unjust and false accusation, which must be submitted to the
judgment of twelve men in the jury-box or of one man on the
bench; twelve men fresh from the people and warmed with the
instinctive sympathies of humanity, or one man, separated from
the people by his station and by the habits of a life passed in
seclusion and study. A jury-trial must be the same whether a man
or woman be arraigned. And the subject under consideration is
important even to men who are regardless of the rights of women.

I shall, therefore, proceed to inquire, as I think the committee
ought to have done, whether the memorialist has been deprived, as
she alleges, of the right of trial by jury secured to her by the
Constitution of the United States. The memorialist claims that
the court erred in its ruling, and in taking the case from the
jury and directing a verdict against her; and also in refusing to
have the jury polled in regard to their verdict; and she prays
that her fine may be remitted by act of Congress.

The first question is, whether in a criminal trial, plea not
guilty