Susan B Anthony's Speech

Susan B. Anthony devoted her life to end women’s suffrage, and fought to prove that women had the right to vote. In the late 1800s voting was not permitted for women, and if they did they might get arrested. Anthony wrote and delivered stub speeches but didn’t have much success doing so. Nonetheless many years after she died her dedication made an impact in women’s right to vote, and in 1920 the 19th amendment was passed. In her speech Anthony talks about ending women’s suffrage, and her story of how she got arrested for trying to vote. In 1872 Anthony got arrested as a result of voting in the presidential election. She was tried in 1873 by an all male jury and was not allowed to represent herself. The judge found her guilty and fined her. Anthony knew that she would lose since she wasn’t allowed to take the stand, so instead she gave a speech in several places. Her speech consisted of arguments objecting to her arrest, it quoted the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, she states that since women were citizens they already had the right to vote. She points out that it is unlawful to arrest women just because they are practicing their god given right to vote. Anthony says that before governments were created each individual had the right to protect his …show more content…
With her speech Anthony is trying to persuade people to support her in the battle to end women suffrage. Furthermore the legal evidence the author is using supports appropriately the audience she is speaking to. She doesn’t put feeling and emotion in her way, but instead uses only legal documents in her speech. Her main arguments is when she quotes the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, saying that women already have the right to vote since it states it in there. Of course Anthony’s strongest counter-argument is when she points out that there are only masculine pronouns used thus women don’t have to obey any laws or be