When you consider how much that amount of money would buy, in that age and country, and how usual it was to be scrofulous, when not dead, you would understand that the annual king's-evil appropriation was just the River and Harbor bill of that government for the grip it took on the treasury and the chance it afforded for skinning the surplus.
It happened in Rochester, New York on November 5, 1872, and the event--and the trial for illegal voting that followed--would create a opportunity for Anthony to spread her arguments for women suffrage to a wider audience than ever before. The Vote. Anthony had been planning to vote long before 1872.
The courtroom was packed for the trial of Susan B. Anthony, the foremost leader of the women's rights movement in the United States. What crime was she accused of committing? In November 1872, she and 15 other women in Rochester, New York, had demanded to be registered and had voted in the national election. Soon after, all 16 women were arrested. In 1872, women could not vote in New York or in any other state. Of the 16 women, only the leader, Susan B. Anthony, was put on trial. Hers would be a test case. If she could convince the jury that she had a right under the U.S. Constitution to vote, she would be found not guilty. Then all U.S. women would win the right to vote.