Summary Of Susan B Anthony On Women's Right To Vote

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Susan B. Anthony's, "On Women's Right to Vote" speech was a historically significant oration that justified her position on women's suffrage. She establishes a proper, authoritative tone by citing government based documents, appealing to women's feelings of exclusion, and creating a logical argument through the use of many rhetorical strategies.
Anthony references authoritative documents, such as the Preamble of the Constitution, to imply the abuse of the word 'we' in the document through the use of ethos. She states, "the people; not we" (Anthony 3) and, "nor yet we, the male citizens" (Anthony 3) alluding to the form of the word use " 'we' " (Anthony 2) in the Preamble of the Constitution. She indicates that the people are not a union and point out that women are just merely an irrelevant piece of the whole. The way Anthony understood the preamble of the constitution was in a way where she saw the words, " 'We the people of the United States'," (Anthony 2) as meaning to a nation, both men and women united. In her eyes, she saw the United States in unison, where women stand next to men, not serve underneath them. …show more content…

She uses the words, "to the whole people- as well as women" (Anthony 3) and asking the question, "Are women persons?" (Anthony 5) Since all people are considered citizens, then women should be given the right to vote. Anthony further exemplifies the country is not a, "republic" (Anthony 4), but "an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe" (Anthony 4). Men had been posed with the feeling that they are in too much control and pose as tyrannical rulers over women. They see women as inferior and do not think much of them other than the fact that their purpose is to serve under