Page:Susan B. Anthony petition for remission of fine.djvu/14

 any case justify a criminal act, but on the ground that bad faith in voting was an indispensable ingredient in the offence with which your petitioner was charged. Any other interpretation strikes the word "knowingly," out of the statute, the word which alone describes the essence of the offence.

The statute means, as your petitioner is advised, and humbly submits, a knowledge in  fact, not a knowledge falsely imputed by law to a party not possessing it in fact, as the Judge in this case has held. Crimes cannot either in law, or in morals, be established by judicial falsehood. If there be any crime in the case, your petitioner insists, it is to be found in such an adjudication.

To the decision of the Judge upon the question of the right of your