and wondered to see us crush the rebellion of '61, it is at
this hour,--at this soon coming trial of Miss Anthony at Canandaigua,
before the Supreme Court of the Northern District of New York,--it is at
this trial that republican institutions will have their grand test, and
as the decision is rendered for, or against the political rights of
citizenship, so will the people of the United States find themselves
free or slaves, and so will the United States have tried itself, and
paved its way for a speedy fall, or for a long and glorious
continuance.

Miss Anthony is to-day the representative of liberty. In all ages of the
world, and during all times, there have been epochs in which some one
person took upon their own shoulders the hopes and the sorrows of the
world, and in their own person, through many struggles bore them onward.
Suddenly or gradually, as the case might be, men found the rugged path
made smooth and the way opened for the world's rapid advance. Such an
epoch exists now, and such a person is Susan B. Anthony.

To you, men of Ontario county, has come an important hour. The fates
have brought about that you, of all the men in this great land, have the
responsibility of this trial. To you, freedom has come looking for
fuller acknowledgement, for a wider area in which to work and grow. Your
decision will not be for Susan B. Anthony alone; it will be for
yourselves and for your children's children to the latest generations.
You are not asked to decide a question under favor, but according to the
foundation principles of this republic. You will be called upon to
decide a question according to our great charters of liberty--the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
You are to decide, not only on a question of natural right, but of
absolute law, of the supreme law of the land. You are not to decide
according to prejudice, but according to the constitution. If your
decision is favorable to the defendant, you will sustain the
constitution; if adverse, if you are blinded by prejudice; you will not
decide against women alone, but against the United States as well. No
more momentous hour has arisen in the interest of freedom, for the
underlying principles of the republic, its warp and woof alike, is the
exact and permanent political equality of every citizen of the nation,
whether that citizen is native born or naturalized, white or black, man
or woman. And may God help you.