we claim to be the true construction
of the amendment.

It is claimed by the majority of the committee that the adoption
of the XV. Amendment was by necessary implication a declaration
that the States had the power to deny the right of suffrage to
citizens for any other reasons than those of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude. We deny that the fundamental
rights of the American citizen can be taken away by
"implication." There is no such law for the construction of the
Constitution of our country. The law is the reverse--that the
fundamental rights of citizens are not to be taken away by
implication, and a constitutional provision for the protection of
one class can certainly not be used to destroy or impair the same
rights in another class. It is too violent a construction of an
amendment, which prohibits States from, or the United States
from, abridging the right of a citizen to vote by reason of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude, to say that by
implication it conceded to the States the power to deny that
right for any other reason. On that theory the States could
confine the right of suffrage to a small minority, and make the
State governments aristocratic, overthrowing their republican
form. The XV. Article of Amendment to the Constitution clearly
recognizes the right to vote, as one of the rights of a citizen
of the United States. This is the language:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State,
on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.

Here is stated, first, the existence of a right. Second, its
nature. Whose right is it? The right of citizens of the United
States. What is the right? The right to vote. And this right of
citizens of the United States, States are forbidden to abridge.
Can there be a more direct recognition of a right? Can that be
abridged which does not exist? The denial of the power to abridge
the right, recognizes the existence of the right. Is it said that
this right exists by virtue of State citizenship, and State laws
and Constitutions? Mark the language: "The right of citizens of
the United States to vote;" not citizens of States. The right is
recognized as