Susan B Anthony United States To Vote Analysis

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“It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed this union.” said Susan B. Anthony in her “Is it a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?” speech. My impression of this statement is that we, meaning both men and women, are who formed this union. Back in those times it was abnormal for women to have a voice, we were meant to hide behind our men. Albeit in 1872, Anthony was brave enough to be her own person and put her foot down. She voted in the presidential election in the front parlor of her own home without having the lawful right to vote. The purpose of Anthony’s speech is to raise awareness to all of us citizens on the importance of why women should be of equal to men. She states in paragraph 2,…show more content…
Anthony uses many claims throughout her argument, including those of fact and value. One primary claim of value she proposed was “… I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's right…” (Anthony para 2). That sentence is the prime reason why she developed this speech. During the 1870’s that would have simply been an opinion to the rest of the world. Now that women are allowed to vote in present day, it’s a fact. I personally wouldn’t add so many opinion-based thoughts into my speech because of the fear of not having my listeners agree and/or relate to what I’m saying. But she uses claim of fact to defend her claim of values. A good example of that is when she mentioned “Our democratic-republican government is based on the idea of the natural right of every individual member thereof to a voice and a vote in making and executing the laws” (Anthony para 3). I’m almost positive she included this statement in her speech to reiterate the type of government they claimed to be and to show how it was exactly the opposite. She got arrested for openly trying to vote and express her views, but got immediately shut down due to the fact that she was a
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