Of all my prosecutors ... not one is my peer, but each and all are my political sovereigns; and had your honor submitted my case to the jury, as was clearly your duty, then I should have had just cause of protest, for not one of those men was my peer; but, native or foreign born, white or black, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, sober or drunk, each and every man of them was my political superior; hence, in no sense, my peer.
ATTRIBUTION:
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906), U.S. suffragist. As quoted in Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings, part 3, by Miriam Schnier (1972).
Said by the famous woman suffrage leader in federal court on June 18, 1873, upon its being judged that she “did knowingly, wrongfully and unlawfully vote for a Representative in the Congress of the United States”; the case was United States vs. Susan B. Anthony. Anthony was alluding to the American legal requirement that a person accused of a crime be tried by a jury of “peers.” American women would not gain the right to vote for another forty-seven years.
