LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A newly discovered letter from Susan B. Anthony outlines her plea to President Ulysses S. Grant for women's right to vote. Here are Anthony's words read by one of our MORNING EDITION colleagues.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Reading) You are doubtless aware that several U.S. citizens are now under arrest by the U.S. commissioner of the city to answer for illegal voting - that is, for exercising what they believe to be the constitutional right of United States citizens.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
That letter was dated November 25, 1872, one week after Anthony was arrested for illegally voting for Grant in that year's presidential election. Anthony suggested to Grant that Congress pass a law to more clearly define all citizens' voting rights.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Reading) If to be a citizen is not to be a voter, then what better is a citizen of the U.S. than a subject of the British Empire? If the boast I am an American citizen means only that I am bound to obey the law of the United States, what mockery.
FADEL: Documents dealer Nathan Raab says he learned about the letter from a woman who received it as a wedding gift after it was bought in a New York bookstore in the 1980s. Raab notes Anthony used some passionate underlines to make her point.
NATHAN RAAB: What struck me in the end was that she didn't sign the letter on her behalf alone. She wrote...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Reading) With respect and on behalf of all women citizens.
RAAB: So in her mind, this was a letter on behalf of women demanding that the president take this seriously, demanding that he recognize that there's a half the country that has yet to achieve the rights that the other half takes for granted.
MARTÍNEZ: There is no record of Grant receiving this letter or that it was ever sent. Yet Raab says the letter's core sentiment holds true as the country celebrates its 250th anniversary.
RAAB: Every election season, we hear the same refrain, which is your vote matters and go vote. Well, people fought for that. People were in prison for that. Some people died for that. You know, it's not only women that had to fight for their right to vote, it's other segments of the society. It's a reminder that what we take for granted today cost other people a lot.
FADEL: The 19th Amendment, giving all sexes the right to vote, became law in 1920, nearly 50 years after the letter was dated and 14 years after Anthony's death at the age of 86. Her letter now belongs to a private collector.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE SIX PARTS SEVEN'S "CONVERSATION HEART") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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