CONSTITUTIONAL EQUALITY THE LOGICAL RESULT OF THE XIV. AND XV.
AMENDMENTS, WHICH NOT ONLY DECLARE WHO ARE CITIZENS, BUT ALSO DEFINE
THEIR RIGHTS, ONE OF WHICH IS THE RIGHT TO VOTE, WITHOUT REGARD TO SEX,
BOTH SEXES BEING INCLUDED IN THE MORE COMPREHENSIVE PROHIBITORY TERMS OF
RACE AND COLOR.
THE STATE LAWS WHICH PROSCRIBED WOMEN AS VOTERS WERE REPEALED BY THE
STATES WHEN THEY RATIFIED SAID AMENDMENTS—THERE ARE NO EXISTING
OPERATIVE LAWS WHICH PROSCRIBE THE RIGHT OF ANY CITIZEN TO VOTE—THE
PERFECTED FRUITS OF THE LATE WAR—THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS
BOUND TO PROTECT ITS CITIZENS, MALE AND FEMALE, IN THE EXERCISE OF THEIR
RIGHT TO VOTE—THE DUTY OF CONGRESS IN THE PREMISES.
The time has now arrived when it becomes proper to present the final and
unanswerable proposition, which cannot by any possibility be
controverted, that the several States which, until recently, assumed and
exercised the right of defining which of its citizens should exercise
the right to vote, have by their own voluntary act not only forever
repealed all such prohibitory laws, but also have forever barred their
re-enactment.
Of this I have been fully aware since the proclamation by the President
that the XV. Amendment had become a part of the Organic Law of the
country.
To bring the whole matter properly before the public I published an
address on the 2d of April last, in which I announced myself a candidate
for the Presidency in 1872, and thus asserted the right of woman to
occupy the highest office in the gift of the people.
After that address had had its legitimate effect in arousing the press
of the country to the realization that women are a constituent part of
the body politic, and to a discussion in a much more general way than
had ever been before, I published my second address to the people,
announcing that the XVI. Amendment was a dead letter, and that the
Constitution fully recognized the equality of all citizens.
In this address the general bearings of the Constitution were examined,
and from the blending of its various parts the conclusion was arrived at
that no State should deny the right to vote to any citizen.
I now take the final step, and show that the States themselves, by their
legislative enactments, have removed the only obstacle which until then
had prevented women from voting, and have forever debarred themselves
from receding to their former position. It is as follows:
SUFFRAGE, or the right to vote, is declared by the XV. Article of
Amendments to the Constitution to be a RIGHT, not a privilege, of
citizens of the United States.
A right of a citizen is inherent in the individual, of which he cannot
be deprived by any law of any State.
A privilege may be conferred upon the citizen of the State, and by it
may be taken away. This distinction is made to show that _to vote is not
a privilege_ conferred by a State upon its citizens, but a
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT of every citizen of the United States, of which
they cannot be deprived. The language of the Constitution is most
singularly emphatic upon this point. It is as follows: