CORRESPONDENCE FROM WASHINGTON—SPECIAL TO THE COMMONWEALTH.
Susan Anthony'S Case.
Speaking of women, reminds me that a report will soon be made by the Judiciary Committee upon the petition of Susan B. Anthony for a remission of her fine for voting in the last Presidential campaign for General Grant and Henry Wilson. The friends of woman's suffrage confidently expect a favorable report upon this subject from the committee. It was a clear case of a decision by a judge in excess of his authority, and acting without warrant of law. It will not be a decision if favorably made into which the right of suffrage will necessarily enter. Miss Anthony claims her conviction was unconstitutional under the law, the judge having refused her the right of trial by jury in that he directed the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty. She insists that this proceeding of the judge was in derogation of her legal right of trial by jury, and as by law she had no appeal in a criminal case from the decision of a single judge, that it is the duty, as it is in the power, of Congress to remit the fine which she has been ordered to pay with the costs. This simply involves a legal question, and one which the Judiciary Committee will be quite likely to decide in Susan's favor as she has both law and precedent on her side. If the committee report favorably to the House, it will be quite likely to pass on its merits as a legal question, giving many members an opportunity to vote as their sympathies would direct without committing themselves squarely to the question of woman's suffrage. It is a step that will pave the way to this in the future. Mr. Sargent has introduced a similar bill in the Senate, and Senator Carpenter is pledged not only to its support but announces himself ready to work for its passage.
The question of whether woman shall vote has become one of live issues in politics to-day, and must be met by parliaments and people whether they will or no. Susan B. Anthony, as the pioneer in this crusade, holds the respectful consideration of a large number of our public men. They have learned that she is in earnest in the advocacy of equal rights, social and political, for her sex. She has no other religion than work for this cause, unless it be war upon what she calls the male despotism of both church and State. She will have gained in this, the great cause to which she has consecrated her life, a substantial victory. Notwithstanding it does not bear directly upon the question of suffrage, it will be a recognition of the fact that judges can not with impunity make decisions that woman has no rights that they are bound to respect, and the rebuke that this remission of her fine, if ordered by Congress, will be to the judge presiding in her case is one that his associates throughout the country will be sure to heed. This will at the same time give courage and hope to the friends of equal rights to all regardless of race, sex, or previous condition of servitude.
MINOR vs. HAPPERSETT.
(Toledo Sunday Journal, April, 1875,)We insert to-day a communication from a friend of equal rights, who highly condemns the interpretation of the Constitution by the Supreme Court—his opinion also being from a legal standpoint. There is no doubt but that although the mere letter of the Constitution may be adhered to, women not being specified as being people and not non-entities, the interpretation is clear behind the spirit of the Constitution. It is then the manifest duty of Congress, since the Supreme Court gives the conservative interpretation, to so amend the Constitution as to bring it up unmistakably to the design of the framers, which was representation for all the people.
The Great Usurpation.
President Woman's Suffrage Association, Toledo, Ohio:
Dear Madam: What a fraud is practiced by the administration of this government upon the provisions of the Constitution of the United States! As government is administered, the female portion of the public are defrauded of constitutional right, and made to become political slaves. Since the beginning, all the way down to the present day, woman has been debarred of all political privilege, though reckoned and ac-