1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
State wherein they reside. _No State shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States._ Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or
property without due process of law, _nor deny to any person_ within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The next point of inquiry is, How is it that the State laws which
formerly did proscribe women and exclude them from the exercise of
suffrage, no longer _do_ so? Simply and effectively by this fact, that,
by the adoption of the XV. Article of Amendments to the Constitution,
the States established, as the “SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND,” the fact that
no person born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof shall be denied or abridged by the United States,
or by any State, of the RIGHT TO VOTE.
Women are citizens of the United States; and the States themselves, by
their own voluntary act, have established the fact of their citizenship,
and confirmed their right to vote, which, by such action, has become the
supreme law of the land, which supersedes, annuls and abrogates all
previous State laws inconsistent therewith or contravening the same. The
XV. Article of Amendments to the Constitution is as much a part of it as
any originally adopted; for Art VI., ¶ 2, says:
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be
made under the authority of the United States, _shall be_ THE SUPREME
_law of_ THE LAND; and the _judges in_ EVERY _State shall_ BE BOUND
THEREBY; anything in _the Constitution or laws_ OF ANY _State_ TO THE
CONTRARY NOTWITHSTANDING.
The XV. Amendment was adopted by the several States as a legislative
enactment by their Legislatures, under Art V., which provides:
The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it
necessary, _shall propose amendments to this Constitution_; or, on the
application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States,
shall call a convention for proposing amendments, _which_, in either
case, _shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this
Constitution_, when _ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths
thereof_ as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by
Congress, provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year
one thousand eight hundred and eight, shall, in any manner, affect the
first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; AND
THAT NO STATE, WITHOUT ITS CONSENT, SHALL BE DEPRIVED OF ITS EQUAL
SUFFRAGE IN THE SENATE.
Since, therefore, all citizens have the RIGHT TO VOTE under this act or
participation by the Legislatures of the several States, all State Laws
which abridge the right are inoperative, null and void, and the
exclusion of women who are citizens from the right to vote, was repealed
and must stand repealed until the Legislatures of the several States
shall again pass an act positively excluding her. If we again examine
Art XV. we shall see that this right shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States or any State on account of RACE, COLOR, or PREVIOUS
CONDITION OF SERVITUDE; it is left to be inferred that it might be on
account of SEX, but this denial has not yet been attempted, nor could it
be accomplished if it were, for here the XIV. Amendment again comes to
our relief saying, “That no State shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States.”
Again, the Constitution is assuredly a contract between States and
citizens, and Sec. 10, Art I., provides that no State shall pass any law
impairing contracts.
Art I., Sec. 4,¶ I, provides that:
“The times, places and _manner of holding elections_ for senators and
representatives shall be prescribed in each State, by the Legislature
thereof; but the _Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter
such regulations_, except as to the places of choosing senators,”
while the judiciary of the United States has acquired complete
jurisdiction over this matter by the authority of Art III., Sec. 2,¶
1, which provides that: “_The judicial power shall extend to all cases
in law and equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of the
United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their
authority_.”
And for all these reasons, the State Legislatures having, by the
adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, abrogated all previously existing,
conflicting laws on the subject of suffrage, are now forever precluded
by the Fourteenth Amendment from re-establishing any restriction to
apply to women, whom the authorities of the United States, in their
support of the Constitution, are in duty bound to protect in their right
to vote.
Now what was the fruit of the late war, which threw the entire nation
into such convulsive throes, unless it is found in the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, namely: that grand change in
the fundamental laws which declares _who_ are citizens and what are
their _rights_, _privileges_ and immunities, which cannot be abridged?
Will any one pretend that these great enactments can be understood to
mean less than the language thereof plainly conveys? Or will any one
claim that the old, absurd State laws, which were sunk in oblivion by
the adoption of these amendments to the Constitution, are still in
force? Who will _dare_ to say, in the face of these plainly worded
amendments, which have such an unmistakable meaning, that the women of
America shall not enjoy their emancipation as well as the black slave?
WOMEN HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE! It is the duty of the Government to see
that they are not denied the right to exercise it, and, to secure the
necessary action of Congress in the premises, I did, on the 21st day of
December, 1870, memorialize Congress as recorded in the Congressional
_Globe_, December 22, 1870.
In the Senate:
Mr. Harris presented the memorial of Victoria C. Woodhull, praying for
the passage of such laws as may be necessary and proper for carrying
into execution the right vested by the Constitution in the citizens of
the United States to vote without regard to sex; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed.
In the House:
Mr. Julian—I ask unanimous consent to present at this time and have
printed in the _Globe_ the memorial of Victoria C. Woodhull, claiming
the right of suffrage under the XIV. and XV. Articles of Amendments to
the Constitution of the United States, and asking for the enactment of
the necessary and appropriate legislation to guarantee the exercise of
that right to the women of the United States. I also ask that the
petition be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
No objection was made, and it was ordered accordingly.
The petition is as follows: