id before that
amendment.... The right of voting or the privilege of voting is a right
or privilege arising under the constitution of the state, and not of the
United States. If the right belongs to any particular person, it is
because such person is entitled to it as a citizen of the state where he
offers to exercise it, and not because of citizenship of the United
States.... The regulation of the suffrage is conceded to the states as a
state right."

If this position be correct, which I am not now disposed to question, I
respectfully insist that the congress of the United States had no power
to pass the act in question, that by doing so it has attempted to usurp
the rights of the states, and that all proceedings under the act are
void.

I claim therefore that the defendant is entitled to a new trial.

First--Because she has been denied her right of trial by jury.

Second--Because she has been denied the right to ask the jury severally
whether they assented to the verdict which the court had recorded for
them.

Third--Because the court erroneously held, that the defendant had not a
lawful right to vote.

Fourth--Because the court erroneously held, that if the defendant, when
she voted, did so in good faith, believing that she had a right to vote,
that fact constituted no defence.

Fifth--Because the court erroneously held that the question, whether the
defendant, at the time of voting knew that she had not a right to vote,
was a question of law to be decided by the court, and not a question of
fact to be decided by the jury.

Sixth--Because the court erred in holding that it was a presumption of
law that the defendant knew that she was not a legal voter, although in
fact she had not that knowledge.

Seventh--Because congress had no constitutional right to pass the act
under which the defendant was indicted, and the act and all proceedings
under it are void.

Sir, so far as my information in regard to legal proceedings extends,
this is the only court in any country where trial by jury exists, in
which the decisions that are made in the haste and sometimes confusion
of such trials, are not subject to review before any other tribunal. I
believe that to the decisions of this court, in criminal cases, no
review is allowed, except in the same court in the informal way in which
I now ask your honor to review the decisions made on this trial. This is
therefore the court of last resort, and I hope your honor will g