thus acting, in the most perfect good
faith, with motives as pure and impulses as noble as any which can find
place in your honor's breast in the administration of justice, she is by
the laws of her country to be condemned as a criminal, she must abide
the consequences. Her condemnation, however, under such circumstances,
would only add another most weighty reason to those which I have already
advanced, to show that women need the aid of the ballot for their
protection.
Upon the remaining question, of the good faith of the defendant, it is
not necessary for me to speak. That she acted in the most perfect good
faith stands conceded.
Thanking your honor for the great patience with which you have listened
to my too extended remarks, I submit the legal questions which the case
involves for your honor's consideration.
* * *
THE COURT addressed the jury as follows:
_Gentlemen of the Jury_:
I have given this case such consideration as I have been able to, and,
that there might be no misapprehension about my views, I have made a
brief statement in writing.
The defendant is indicted under the act of Congress of 1870, for having
voted for Representatives in Congress in November, 1872. Among other
things, that Act makes it an offence for any person knowingly to vote
for such Representatives without having a right to vote. It is charged
that the defendant thus voted, she not having a right to vote because
she is a woman. The defendant insists that she has a right to vote; that
the provision of the Constitution of this State limiting the right to
vote to persons of the male sex is in violation of the 14th Amendment of
the Constitution of the United States, and is void. The 13th, 14th and
15th Amendments were designed mainly for the protection of the newly
emancipated negroes, but full effect must nevertheless be given to the
language employed. The 13th Amendment provided that neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude should longer exist in the United States. If
honestly received and fairly applied, this provision would have been
enough to guard the rights of the colored race. In some States it was
attempted to be evaded by enactments cruel and oppressive in their
nature, as that colored persons were forbidden to appear in the towns
except in a menial capacity; that they should reside on and cultivate
the soil without being allowed to own it; that they were not permitted
to give testimony in cases
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