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The Daily Signal
Trump Pardons Susan B. Anthony on 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage
Fred Lucas
August 18, 2020
President Donald Trump announces a pardon for 19th- century women's
rights advocate Susan B. Anthony, who was convicted of voting illegally
in 1872. Pictured: A Susan B. Anthony one-dollar coin on display
Tuesday in San Anselmo, California. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Images)
President Donald Trump issued a posthumous pardon Tuesday to celebrated
women’s suffragist Susan B. Anthony to mark the 100th anniversary of
the 19th Amendment to the Constitution recognizing the right of women
to vote.
Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting in an election at a time in
America when only men could vote. She was indicted, convicted of
illegal voting, and sentenced to pay a fine of $100 and court costs.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump signed a proclamation declaring August to be
National Suffrage Month. During that event, Trump first said he would
sign a “full and complete pardon” for Anthony, who died in
1906.
“She was never pardoned. Did you know that?” Trump said. “What took so
long? She was [found] guilty for voting and we’re going to be signing a
full and complete pardon.”
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Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List
and a member of the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission, celebrated
the pardon and attended the earlier event.
“Susan B. Anthony fought to expand the promise of human rights and
dignity to all people,” Dannenfelser said in a written statement,
adding:
She and her compatriots provide us with the model of how to advocate
for the voiceless and disenfranchised in our own time. It is her
courageous example that inspired the formation of SBA List and
continues to inspire our work today. We are deeply moved and grateful
to President Trump for honoring the legacy of this great American hero
and we pledge never to tire in carrying on her unfinished work.
Also at the event were other prominent female leaders, including
Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James; Heather Higgins, president
of Independent Women’s Voice; Karen Hill, CEO of the Harriet Tubman
National Historical Park; Anna Laymon, acting executive director of the
Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission; lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a former
member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives; Penny Nance,
president of Concerned Women for America; Colleen Shogan, deputy
director for national and international outreach at the Library of
Congress; and Debra Wall, deputy archivist of the United States.
As leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association, Anthony
unsuccessfully lobbied for women’s right to vote to be included in the
platform of the 1872 Republican National Convention, which nominated
President Ulysses S. Grant for a second term.
The platform included softer, ambiguous language about the party’s
“obligations to the loyal women of America for their noble devotion to
the cause of freedom” and hope for “their admission to wider fields of
usefulness.”
Anthony also reached out to the Democrat-endorsed candidate newspaper
editor and publisher Horace Greeley, presidential nominee of the
Liberal Republican Party, who outright rejected the notion of women’s
suffrage.
Anthony voted for Grant and the Republican ticket in the election on Nov. 5, 1872. She was arrested two weeks later.
Two young men who registered Anthony to vote were interviewed for a hearing to determine whether she broke the law.
Her two-day trial in June 1973, Anthony said, was “the greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded.”
The 19th Amendment was ratified 100 years ago Tuesday, on Aug. 18, 1920.
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