The purpose of these first paragraph was stated by Anthony herself when she said that her goal during the course of the night would be to prove that she had committed no crime by voting. This was the claim then, that there was no wrongdoing.
In the next paragraph she already begins to mention the first pieces of supporting evidence that back her justification for voting. It can be assumed that the rest of the speech will be dedicated to further proving her argument and added more evidence to the claim that she did no wrong.
