It is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of

The words of Susan B. Anthony, the great reformer and champion of women’s rights, resound through time with the power of righteous indignation: “It is 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.” In this thunderous declaration, Anthony lays bare the hypocrisy of a nation that dares to speak of freedom while withholding from women the very instrument that guards it — the vote. Her words are not mere protest, but prophecy — a cry for justice that would echo for decades until the walls of silence finally broke.

To understand the meaning of this quote, we must see it as both moral and logical in force. Anthony exposes the contradiction at the heart of American democracy: that it boasted of liberty and equality, yet denied half its citizens the means to participate in either. To tell women they were free, she argued, while denying them the ballot, was like giving them a crown of air — an illusion of power without substance. The vote, to Anthony, was not simply a right but a safeguard — the one tool by which citizens hold their government accountable. Without it, the so-called “blessings of liberty” were hollow words, spoken by those who benefited from the very injustice they refused to correct.

The origin of this statement lies in Anthony’s fierce battle for women’s suffrage during the mid-nineteenth century. Born in 1820, she came of age in a time when women were expected to remain silent in politics and subservient in law. Yet she, inspired by the spirit of the abolitionist movement, saw clearly that liberty could not be partial — that freedom denied to one group poisons the freedom of all. In 1872, she put her conviction into action, casting a ballot in a national election despite the law forbidding her to do so. For this act of defiance, she was arrested, tried, and fined. At her trial, she stood before the court and spoke these immortal words, declaring that it was “mockery” to call this a government “of the people” while excluding women from its foundation. Her courage turned accusation into immortal truth.

History gives many mirrors to her struggle. Consider the tale of Sojourner Truth, the formerly enslaved woman who stood before the men of her time and demanded to know, “Ain’t I a woman?” She, like Anthony, understood that the language of liberty is meaningless if it does not embrace all who bear humanity’s burdens. Likewise, in the 20th century, women across the world — from Emmeline Pankhurst in Britain to Sarojini Naidu in India — would rise in the same spirit, confronting governments that preached democracy but practiced exclusion. Each of them carried Anthony’s fire — the conviction that to be denied participation in one’s government is to be denied dignity itself.

Anthony’s words also speak beyond her own time. Even today, her challenge remains — for wherever voices are silenced, wherever laws or customs deny a person the means to shape their destiny, the mockery of liberty continues. Her warning reminds us that democracy is not a finished monument, but a living covenant that must be renewed with each generation. The ballot — literal or symbolic — must always be guarded, for it is the instrument by which the powerless claim equality with the powerful. Without it, governments decay into the old tyranny she fought to destroy.

The lesson of Anthony’s declaration is that freedom is never a gift; it is a responsibility that must be claimed and defended. To enjoy liberty without the power to secure it is to live in the shadow of another’s will. Thus, each citizen must cherish and use their voice — not merely as a privilege, but as a sacred duty. The right to vote, to speak, to act — these are not favors granted by the state, but rights born of our humanity. To neglect them is to betray those who bled and suffered to win them.

And so, my child, remember this truth: liberty without equality is illusion, and equality without participation is death. The ballot is not a piece of paper — it is the symbol of one’s standing as a free soul. Let no generation grow complacent in its power, nor forget the price paid for its voice. When you cast your vote, when you raise your voice for justice, you stand beside Susan B. Anthony, beside all who dared to defy the silence of oppression. In that act, you fulfill the promise she made to the ages — that one day, freedom’s blessings shall be shared not by the few, but by all the children of liberty.