ted
States.

At this same convention Mrs. Virginia L. Minor, President of the
Missouri State Association, in her opening address said:

I believe that the Constitution of the United States gives me
every right and privilege to which every other citizen is
entitled; for while the Constitution gives the States the right
to regulate suffrage, it nowhere gives them power to prevent it.
The power to regulate is one thing, the power to prevent is an
entirely different thing. Thus the State can say where, when, and
what citizens may exercise the right of suffrage. If she can say
that a woman, who is a citizen of the United States, shall not
vote, then she can equally say that a Chinaman, who is not a
citizen, shall vote and represent her in Congress. The foreign
naturalized citizen claims his right to vote from and under the
paramount authority of the Federal Government, and the State has
no right to prevent him from voting, and thus place him in a
lower degree or grade of citizenship than that of free citizens.
This being the case, is it presumable that a foreign citizen is
intended to be placed higher than one born on our soil? Under our
Constitution and laws, woman is a naturalized citizen with her
husband. There are men in this town to-day, to my certain
knowledge, who have had this boon of citizenship thrust upon
them, who scorned the name, and who freely claimed allegiance to
a foreign power. Our Government has existed for eighty years, yet
this question of citizenship has never been settled. In 1856 the
question came before the then Attorney-General, Mr. Cushing, as
to whether Indians were citizens of the United States, and as
such, were entitled to the privilege of preempting our public
lands. He gave it as his opinion that they were not citizens, but
domestic subjects, and therefore not entitled to the benefits of
the act.

In 1821 the question came before Attorney-General William Wirt,
as to whether free persons of color in the State of Virginia were
citizens of the United States, and as such, entitled to command
vessels engaged in foreign trade. He gave it as his opinion that
they were not, that the Constitution by the term citizen, and by
its description of citizen, meant only those who were entitled to
all the privileges of free