the United States a Nation? If it does not possess
powers to protect its own citizens it is not a Nation. Citizens
of the United States are entitled to protection, whether they are
robbed of their liberties in a Spanish dungeon, or in the States
of Rhode Island or New York. The Judiciary Committee of Congress
has reported adversely upon the petition of the 10,000
naturalized citizens of Rhode Island. Does Congress intend to
sustain State Rights? What better is it for those 10,000 men that
they became naturalized? If they are first citizens of the United
States, as the XIV. Amendment declares, they should be protected
in their rights of citizenship by the United States against the
States, and their thirty-seven isolated methods of legislation.
This adverse report of the Judiciary Committee in regard to the
10,000 disfranchised men of Rhode Island, foreshadows the course
of Congress in regard to the great class of citizens now knocking
at its door. Women claim National protection as citizens of the
Nation.

The original Constitution in its fourth article touches upon
State control, for it declares that the Constitution shall
guarantee to every State a republican form of government. The
"shall" is imperative. It shall! Even as long ago as 1787 it was
declared that the people of the States should no longer be
dependent upon State caprice for their rights, but the general
government took upon itself the authority and the duty of
enforcing in each State a republican form of government. Either
this article is a mere sounding phrase, or the Constitution has
such power, although until the XIV. Amendment the real status of
citizenship had not been settled. People thought of themselves as
first citizens of the States, then of the United States, but now
such a position can not be taken. The eighth step in
centralization settled that point; "every person," not every male
person--but "every person born or naturalized in the United
States"--"is a citizen of the United States, and of the State in
which he resides." First, entitled to national protection, and
through the Nation to State protection. Moreover,

The Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof, are
by article sixth of the Constitution, declared to be the
supreme law