The defendant is indicted under the 19th section of the Act of Congress
of May 31, 1870 (16 St. at L., 144,), for "voting without having a
lawful right to vote."

The words of the Statute, so far as they are material in this case, are
as follows:

"If at any election for representative or delegate in the Congress of
the United States, any person shall knowingly ... vote without having a
lawful right to vote ... every such person shall be deemed guilty of a
crime, ... and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not
exceeding $500, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years,
or by both, in the discretion of the court, and shall pay the costs of
prosecution."

The only alleged ground of illegality of the defendant's vote is that
she is a woman. If the same act had been done by her brother under the
same circumstances, the act would have been not only innocent, but
honorable and laudable; but having been done by a woman it is said to be
a crime. The crime therefore consists not in the act done, but in the
simple fact that the person doing it was a woman and not a man. I
believe this is the first instance in which a woman has been arraigned
in a criminal court, merely on account of her sex.

If the advocates of female suffrage had been allowed to choose the point
of attack to be made upon their position, they could not have chosen it
more favorably for themselves; and I am disposed to thank those who have
been instrumental in this proceeding, for presenting it in the form of a
criminal prosecution.