American Biographies Week 6 Course Material The Declaration of Sentiments
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among
the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of
nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes that impel them to such a course.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure
these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance
to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will
dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer. while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off
such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the
women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to
which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man
toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be
submitted to a candid world.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in
direct object the establishment of an absolute tyrranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid
world.
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men--both natives and foreigners.
Having deprived her of this first right of a citizedn, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in
the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.
He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.
He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be
done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her
husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master--the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty,
and to administer chastisement.
He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the
guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardles of the happiness of women--the law, in all
cases, going upon a flase supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.
After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support
a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.
He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives
but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most
homorable to himself. As a teacher of theoloy, medicine, or law, she is not known.
He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.
He allows her in church, as well as state, but a suborinate position, claiming apostolic authority for her exclusion from
the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the church.
He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by
which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in
man.
He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when
that belongs to her conscience and to her God.
He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her conficence in her own powers, to lessen her selfrespect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious
degradation--in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved,
oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all
the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.
Susan B. Anthony
Judge Hunt—(Ordering the defendant to stand up), Has the prisoner anything to say why sentence shall not be
pronounced?
Miss Anthony—Yes, your honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have
trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights,
my judicial rights, are all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from the
status of a citizen to that of a subject; and not only myself individually, but all of my sex, are, by your honor's
verdict, doomed to political subjection under this, so-called, form of government.
Judge Hunt—The Court cannot listen to a rehearsal of arguments the prisoner's counsel has already consumed
three hours in presenting.
Miss Anthony—May it please your honor, I am not arguing the question, but simply stating the reasons why
sentence cannot, in justice, be pronounced against me. Your denial of my citizen's right to vote, is the denial of my
right of consent as one of the governed, the denial of my right of representation as one of the taxed, the denial of my
right to a trial by a jury of my peers as an offender against law, therefore, the denial of my sacred rights to life,
liberty, property and
Judge Hunt—The Court cannot allow the prisoner to go on.
Miss Anthony—But your honor will not deny me this one and only poor privilege of protest against this highhanded outrage upon my citizen's rights. May it please the Court to remember that since the day of my arrest last
November, this is the first time that either myself or any person of my disfranchised class has been allowed a word
of defense before judge or jury
Judge Hunt—The prisoner must sit down the Court cannot allow it.
Miss Anthony—All of my prosecutors, from the 8th ward corner grocery politician, who entered the complaint,
to the United States Marshal, Commissioner, District Attorney, District Judge, your honor on the bench, 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, even 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, awake or asleep, sober or drunk, each and
every man of them was my political superior; hence, in no sense, my peer. Even, under such circumstances, a
commoner of England, tried before a jury of Lords, would have far less cause to complain than should I, a woman,
tried before a jury of men. Even my counsel, the Hon. Henry R. Selden, who has argued my cause so ably, so
earnestly, so unanswerably before your honor, is my political sovereign. Precisely as no disfranchised person is
entitled to sit upon a jury, and no woman is entitled to the franchise, so, none but a regularly admitted lawyer is
allowed to practice in the courts, and no woman can gain admission to the bar hence, jury, judge, counsel, must all
be of the superior class.
Judge Hunt—The Court must insist the prisoner has been tried according to the established forms of law.
Miss Anthony—Yes, your honor, but by forms of law all made by men, interpreted by men, administered by
men, in favor of men, and against women; and hence, your honor's ordered verdict of guilty, against a United States
citizen for the exercise of "that citizen's right to vote," simply because that citizen was a woman and not a man. But,
yesterday, the same man-made forms of law, declared it a crime punishable with $1,000 fine and six months'
imprisonment, for you, or me, or any of us, to give a cup of cold water, a crust of bread, or a night's shelter to a
panting fugitive as he was tracking his way to Canada. And every man or woman in whose veins coursed a drop of
human sympathy violated that wicked law, reckless of consequences, and was justified in so doing. As then, the
slaves who got their freedom must take it over, or under, or through the unjust forms of law, precisely so, now, must
women, to get their right to a voice in this government, take it; and I have taken mine, and mean to take it at every
possible opportunity.
Judge Hunt—The Court orders the prisoner to sit down. It will not allow another word.
Miss Anthony—When I was brought before your honor for trial, I hoped for a broad and liberal interpretation of
the Constitution and its recent amendments, that should declare all United States citizens under its protecting aegis
that should declare equality of rights the national guarantee to all persons born or naturalized in the United States.
But failing to get this justice—failing, even, to get a trial by a jury not of my peers—I ask not leniency at your
hands—but rather the full rigors of the law.
Judge Hunt—The Court must insist
(Here the prisoner sat down.)
Judge Hunt—The prisoner will stand up.
(Here Miss Anthony arose again.)
The sentence of the Court is that you pay a fine of one hundred dollars and the costs of the prosecution.
Miss Anthony—May it please your honor, I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. All the stock in
trade I possess is a $10,000 debt, incurred by publishing my paper—The Revolution—four years ago, the sole object
of which was to educate all women to do precisely as I have done, rebel against your man-made, unjust,
unconstitutional forms of law, that tax, fine, imprison and hang women, while they deny them the right of
representation in the government; and I shall work on with might and main to pay every dollar of that honest debt,
but not a penny shall go to this unjust claim. And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the
practical recognition of the old revolutionary maxim, that "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."
Judge Hunt—Madam, the Court will not order you committed until the fine is paid.
Shoot Out with
"Wild Bill" Hickok, 1869
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The exploits of Wild Bill Hickok - spread by word-of-mouth and embellished by dime novels
- would shape the popular image of America's frontier. Tall, lean, muscular, long blond hair
falling to his shoulders, two pistols shoved into his belt, wearing a law man's badge on his
chest: he personified the image of the Western hero for both his and later generations.
One incident in particular had a major impact on the birth of an icon of the Old West - the
gunfight in which two lone gunman face
Wild Bill Hickok, 1873
off in the middle of a dusty street. There is no evidence that these shootouts occurred with
any frequency in the West - after all, who in their right mind would participate in such a
dangerous enterprise? However, an incident in Springfield, Missouri soon after the close of
the Civil War did much to inspire the myth.
There was no love lost between Wild Bill and Dave Tutt. Hickok had fought for the Union,
Tutt for the Confederacy. Their enmity only increased when both became interested in the
same woman. The matter came to a head when Tutt stole Wild Bill's pocket watch during a
poker game and bragged he would parade through Springfield's town square wearing his
rival's prized possession. At the announced time, Wild Bill stood in the square and warned
Tutt not to proceed. Unfazed, Tutt boldly strode towards his enemy and pulled his pistol.
Wild Bill simultaneously drew his pistol and fired. Tutt fell - dead. Wild Bill quickly turned and
leveled his gun towards a crowd of Tutt's supporters who had gathered nearby, warning
them not to interfere. They took the hint.
Later, when Hickok became the law in such wide-open towns as Abilene and Hays City,
Kansas, his reputation alone was often sufficient to persuade dusty cowhands to think twice
about disrupting the peace.
However, his fame was a double-edged sword - to some, killing a man of such repute
was a trophy worth having. During the afternoon of August 2, 1876 Wild Bill sat playing
poker in the No. 10 saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. Abandoning his usual precaution
of always sitting with his back to a wall and engrossed in the game, he failed to notice Jack
McCall sneak in through a back door. McCall calmly approached Hickok from behind, raised
his pistol and shot him dead for reasons still not fully understood.
Chief Joseph
Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I
am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute
is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led
on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are
freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no
blankets, no food. No one knows where they are - perhaps freezing to death. I want to
have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall
find them among the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad.
From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.
Chief Joseph - Thunder Traveling to the Loftier Mountain Heights - 1877