he XV.
Amendment was passed under a supposed necessity, and with,
therefore, a complete object; while the XIV. Amendment, under the
construction which our opponents give to it, not only conferred
nothing, but was believed at the time to confer nothing, and had
therefore no purpose whatever. Our view that the XV. Amendment
was unnecessary was held by some leading statesmen at the time.
Mr. Sumner in the Senate declared it to be so before its passage,
and proposed instead of it a mere law of Congress recognizing the
right of suffrage and regulating its exercise.

It is at any rate very clear that the construction of the XV.
Amendment, which makes it impliedly allow the denial of suffrage
on all other grounds than the three stated, can not be sustained.
Such rights as those with which it deals will never be allowed in
a free constitution like ours to be curtailed or restricted by
mere implication. If that construction is adopted--and a State
may deny the right to vote on all other grounds but race and
color and previous servitude--then, of course, a State may deny
the right to all naturalized foreigners, although they have
already acquired and enjoyed the right, and may also deny the
right to vote to persons of a particular height or color of hair
or profession. Indeed, to reduce the case to an absurdity,
suppose the women are allowed to vote in Massachusetts, and,
being a great majority over the men, turn around and exclude the
men. This would be precisely the ground on which women are now
excluded--that of sex; and yet can any one doubt that the
constitutional right to vote of men would be sustained?

It is worth noticing that the Act of Congress of May 31, 1870, to
carry into effect the provisions of the XIV. and XV. Amendments,
is entitled, "An Act to enforce the right of citizens of the
United States to vote in the several States of this Union."

Our conclusion, stated in a few words, is this: All women are
citizens. Every citizen, in the language of Judge Daniel in the
Dred Scott case, has "the actual possession and enjoyment or the
perfect right of acquisition and enjoyment of an entire equality
of privileges, civil and political." The right to prescribe
qualifications rests with the States, in the absence of any law
of Congress pr