A professional friend sitting by has made this suggestion which I take
leave to avail myself of as bearing upon this question: "The Court has
listened for many hours to an argument in order to decide whether the
defendant has a right to vote. The arguments show the same question has
engaged the best minds of the country as an open question. Can it be
possible that the defendant is to be convicted for acting upon such
advice as she could obtain while the question is an open and undecided
one?"

THE COURT: You have made a much better argument than that, sir.

JUDGE SELDEN: As long as it is an open question I submit that she has
not been guilty of an offense. At all events it is for the jury.

THE COURT: I cannot charge these propositions of course. The question,
gentlemen of the jury, in the form it finally takes, is wholly a
question or questions of law, and I have decided as a question of law,
in the first place, that under the 14th Amendment, which Miss Anthony
claims protects her, she was not protected in a right to vote. And I
have decided also that her belief and the advice which she took does
not protect her in the act which she committed. If I am right in this,
the result must be a verdict on your part of guilty, and I therefore
direct that you find a verdict of guilty.

JUDGE SELDEN: That is a direction no Court has power to make in a
criminal case.

THE COURT: Take the verdict, Mr. Clerk.

THE CLERK: Gentlemen of the jury, hearken to your verdict as the Court