SAT阅读必读：论女性选举权演讲及解析

　　本演讲思路清晰，掷地有声，作者援引宪法，肯定妇女作为公民应有选举权;又援引关于公民的权利定义，指出妇女无疑是公民。

　　演讲原文：

　　On Women’s Right to Vote

　　In the 1800s, women in the United States had few legal rights and did not have the right to vote. This speech was given by Susan B. Anthony after her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872. She was tried and then fined $100 but refused to pay.

　　Friends and fellow citizens:

　　I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidentialelection, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.

　　The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:

　　"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

　　It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.

　　For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity.

　　To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.

　　Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.

　　The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.

　　Susan B. Anthony – 1873

　　译文：

　　论妇女选举权

　　1873 年

　　朋友们，公民们：

　　今晚我站在你们面前，被控在最近的总统选举中因没有法定权利而参加投票，犯有所谓选举罪。今晚我要向你们证明，我参加这次选举不但没有犯罪，相反，我只是行使了我的公民权。国家宪法确保我和全体合众国公民拥有公民权，任何一个州都无权剥夺。

　　联邦宪法的序言写道：

　　“我们合众国人民，为建设更完善的联邦，树立正义，保障国内安定，筹设共同防务，增进公共福利，确保我们自己及子孙后代永享自由幸福，特为美利坚合众国制订本宪法。”

　　组成这个联邦的，是我们人民，不是男性白人公民，也不是男性公民，而是我们全体人民。我们组成这个联邦，不仅是为了赐予自由幸福，而且是为了确保自由幸福;不只是为了确保我们自己的一半人及子孙后代中的一半人的自由幸福，而且是为了确保全体人民——包括女人和男人在内的自由幸福。参加投票是这个民主共和政体所提供的确保公民自由幸福的唯一手段因此，一面侈谈妇女享有自由幸福。一面又剥夺了她们的投票权，这是一个莫大的讽刺。

　　任何州政府，如果把性别作为参加选举的资格，必然导致人民中的整整一半被剥夺公民权。这等于通过一项剥夺公民权的法令或一项具有追溯效力的法令。因此，这样做违背了我国的最高法律，使得妇女及其后代中的所有女性被永远剥夺了自由幸福。对于女性来说，这个政府也就不具有来自被统治者赞同的正当权力。对于她们来说，这个政府不是民主政体，也不是共和政体，而是可憎的专制，是可恶的性别独裁，是地球上迄今为止最可恨的专制。因为，有钱人统治穷人的富人独裁，受教育者统治无知者的知识独裁，甚至撒克逊人统治非洲人的种族独裁，人们或许尚能忍受。但是这种性别独裁，却使得每家每户父亲、兄弟、丈夫、儿子成为母亲、姐妹、妻子、女儿的统治者，使一切男子至高无上，一切女人沦为奴婢。因而给全国的每家每户带来不和、纷争和反叛。

　　韦伯斯特、伍斯特和布维尔都认为，所谓合众国公民，就是有权投票和有权供职的美国人。现在唯一要解决的问题是：妇女是不是人?我相信，任何反对我们的人都不敢斗胆说妇女不是人。妇女既然是人，那么也就是公民。无论哪一个州都无权制定某种法律，或重操某种旧法律，来剥夺妇女的特权和豁免权。因此，一些州的宪法和法律中所有歧视妇女的条款，如同所有歧视黑人的条款一样，都是无效的，无用的。

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