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001:19 Day1 Excerpt
**Susan B. Anthony was an American of the mid-19th century famous for her work trying to secure the vote for women in America. In 1872, she had walked into a barbershop — which was a voter registration place — and demanded the right to register; and when she cowed the people there into submission and did register, she was then accused of a crime and fined $100. She never paid that fine, but starting in the following year she gave the speech that would become her signature speech on the subject of voters' rights. Susan B. Anthony built a logical case to illustrate the necessity of women's suffrage.**
02:30 Day2 Excerpt
**"Friends and fellow citizens, I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote."**
**Now she presents the axiom, the unassailable truth on which her argument will be based:**
**"The preamble of the federal Constitution says: 'We the people of the United States.'"**
**Definitions of terms — very important to anybody building a logical case:**
**"It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens. ... 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."**
04:09 Day3 Excerpt
**"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."**
**"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."**
04:59 Day4 Excerpt
**That is the core of her speech. It is a logical case built step by step, starting with axioms, going on to definitions, going on to examinations and demonstrations of different points, and ending with a conclusion.**
**I believe if you can learn from our great guest professors, if you can take to heart what they show you about the step-by-step progression of building a logical speech, your logic will be able to prevail in almost any argument that you choose to make.**
