te very strongly that the
amendment was intended to secure the natural rights of citizens,
as well as their equal capacities before the law.

In a case in the Supreme Court of Georgia, in 1869, the question
was before the court whether a negro was competent to hold office
in the State of Georgia. The case was ably argued on both sides,
Mr. Akerman, the present Attorney General of the United States,
being of counsel for the petitioner. Although the point was made
and argued fully, that the right to vote and hold office were
both included in the privileges and immunities of citizens, and
were thus guaranteed by the XIV. Amendment, yet that point was
not directly passed upon by the court, the court holding that
under the laws and constitution of Georgia, the negro citizen had
the right claimed. In delivering the opinion, Chief Justice Brown
said:

It is necessary to the decision of this case to inquire what
are the "privileges and immunities" of a citizen, which are
guaranteed by the XIV. Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States. Whatever they may be, they are protected
against all abridgment by legislation.... Whether the
"privileges and immunities" of the citizens embrace
political rights, including the right to hold office, I need
not now inquire. If they do, that right is guaranteed alike
by the Constitution of the United States and of Georgia, and
is beyond the control of the legislature.

In the opinion of Justice McKay, among other propositions, he
lays down the following:

2d. The rights of the people of this State, white and black,
are not granted to them by the constitution thereof; the
object and effect of that instrument is not to _give_, but
to restrain, deny, regulate and guarantee rights, and all
persons recognized by that constitution as citizens of the
State have _equal, legal and political rights_ except as
_otherwise expressly declared_.

3d. It is the settled and uniform sense of the word
"citizen," when used in reference to the citizens of the
separate States of the United States, and to their rights as
such citizens, that it describes a person entitled to every
right, _legal and political_,