n, and yet the States
have all been restored to their original position as States in the
Union ... Certainly if the courts can consider any question settled,
this is one....

"Our province," concluded Chief Justice Waite, "is to decide what the
law is, not to declare what it should be.... Being unanimously of the
opinion that the Constitution of the United States does not confer the
right of suffrage upon any one, and that the Constitutions and laws of
the several States which commit that important trust to men alone are
not necessarily void, we affirm the judgment of the Court below."

"A states-rights document," Susan called this decision and she scored
it as inconsistent with the policies of a Republican administration
which, through the Civil War amendments, had established federal
control over the rights and privileges of citizens. If the
Constitution does not confer the right of suffrage, she asked herself,
why does it define the qualifications of those voting for members of
the House of Representatives? How about the enfranchisement of Negroes
by federal amendment or the enfranchisement of foreigners? Why did
the federal government interfere in her case, instead of leaving it in
the hands of the state of New York?

Like most abolitionists, Susan had always regarded the principles of
the Declaration of Independence as underlying the Constitution and as
the essence of constitutional law. In her opinion, the interpretation
of the Constitution in the Virginia Minor case was not only out of
harmony with the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, but also
contrary to the wise counsel of the great English jurist, Sir Edward
Coke, who said, "Whenever the question of liberty runs doubtful, the
decision must be given in favor of liberty."[313]

In the face of such a ruling by the highest court in the land, she was
helpless. Women were shut out of the Constitution and denied its
protection. From here on there was only one course to follow, to press
again for a Sixteenth Amendment to enfranchise women.

FOOTNOTES:

[304] Ms., Diary, April 26, 1873.

[305] _Trial_, p. 17.

[306] _Ibid._, pp. 62-68.

[307] Ms., Diary, June 18, 1873.

[308] Susan B. Anthony Scrapbook, 1873, Library of Congress.

[309] _Trial_, pp. 81-85.

[310] This booklet also included the speeches of Susan B. Anthony and
Matilda Joslyn Gage, delivered prior to the trial, and a short
appraisal of the trial, _Judge Hunt and the Right of T