ion, and of its whole spirit, as well as of the objects of
the instrument. The States clearly have no power to nullify the
express provisions that the election shall be by the people, by
any laws limiting the election to a moiety of the people. It is
true the section recognizes the power in the State to regulate
the qualifications of the electors; but as we have already said,
the power to regulate is a very different thing from the power to
destroy. The two clauses must be taken together, and both
considered in connection with the declared purpose and objects of
the Constitution.

The constitution is necessarily confined to the statement of
general principles. There are regulations necessary to be made as
to the qualifications of voters, as to their proper age, their
domicil, the length of residence necessary to entitle the citizen
to vote in a given State or place. These particulars could not be
provided in the Constitution but are necessarily left to the
States, and this section is thus construed as to be in harmony
with itself, and with the expressed objects of the framers of
the Constitution and the principles of free government. When the
majority of the committee can demonstrate that "the people of the
States," and one-half the people of the States, are equivalent
terms, or that when the Constitution provides that the
Representatives shall be elected by the people, its requirements
are met by an election in which less than one-half the adult
people are allowed to vote, then it will be admitted that this
section to some extent sustains them.

The committee say, that if it had been intended that Congress
should prescribe the qualifications of electors, the grant would
have given Congress that power specifically. We do not claim that
Congress has that power; on the contrary, admit that the States
have it; but the section of the Constitution does prescribe who
the electors shall be. That is what we claim--nothing more. They
shall be "the people;" their qualifications may be regulated by
the States; but to the claim of the majority of the committee
that they may be "qualified" out of existence, we can not assent.

We are told that the acquiescence by the people, since the
adoption of the Constitution, in the denial of political rights