In 1872, Susan B. Anthony voted in the presidential election in Rochester, NY, casting her vote for Ulysses S. Grant. Anthony insisted that her vote was (or at least, ought to be) legal under the language of the 14th Amendment (ratified in 1868), which said that " No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States" and that citizens shall have "equal protection under the law". [1] Anthony argued that she was a citizen and that the 14th Amendment should therefore grant her any rights and privileges to which a man was entitled, including the right to vote. In fact, Anthony specifically cited the 14th Amendment as her legal basis for voting in 1872. [2]

Anthony was later tried and found guilty of voting illegally. She was ordered to pay a fine but never jailed for the offense. The election registrars who allowed her to register and vote (all men), were also convicted of allowing her to vote illegally, and they were jailed for five days. Anthony appealed to President Grant, who pardoned the men at her request. [3] Anthony refused to pay her fine, believing that to do so would be an admission that what she had done was illegal, which she argued it was not. The court took no further action and never forced her to pay the fine. She appealed to Congress in 1874 to strike her fine as unjust and to recognize her right to vote, though Congress never acted on this request. [4] For Anthony, her conviction was more useful to her politically than any pardon could ever be. And, of course, there were really no consequences to her conviction - she was not forced to pay her fine and her conviction didn't really carry any other consequences, since, for example, she couldn't lose her right to vote.

For Grant's part, his support for women's rights was lukewarm at best, though he was certainly more open to the demands for women's rights than other politicians of his day (a low bar indeed). In 1872, at Anthony's urging, the Republican party included a plank in their platform (what Anthony called "a splinter") calling for the "respectful consideration" of the rights of women. [5] As President, Grant never took any particular action to move toward women's suffrage, despite expressing some sympathy with the cause. Certainly, Grant had quite a few serious issues to deal with at the time, including enforcing the recently ratified 15th, which recognized the right to vote for black Americans. We do know that Anthony repeatedly pushed Grant to expand voting rights to women, as Grant biographer Ron Chernow relates this story in his biography of Ulysses S. Grant:

"Susan B. Anthony never ceased trying to lure Grant to the feminist cause. One day she buttonholed him while he was out strolling in the capital. Grant greeted her politely and asked what he could do. "I have only one wish, Mr. President, and that is to see women vote." "Ah, I can't do quite so much as that for you," Grant confessed, laughing. " I can't put vote into the hands of you women, but it may comfort you to know that I have just appointed more than five thousand postmistresses." [Chernow, p. 751]

Susan B. Anthony died in Rochester, NY in 1906. Fourteen years later, the ratification of the 19th Amendment recognized women's right to vote.

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[1] Testimony of Mr. Beverly Jones, an election official in Rochester, NY: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=3

[2] 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1868): https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv

[3] Ron Chernow, Grant, p. 750-751

[4] Susan B. Anthony, Petition to Congress, January 12, 1874: https://famous-trials.com/anthony/437-petition

[5] Republican Party Platform of 1872, Fourteenth paragraph, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1872