from
conferring the right of suffrage. (Scott _vs._ Sandford, 19
Howard, 422.)

The right of suffrage is the right to choose officers of the
Government, and it does not carry along the right of
citizenship. (Bates on Citizenship, 4, 5.) Our laws make no
provision for the loss or deprivation of citizenship.
(_Id._)

The word "citizen" is not mentioned in this clause, and its
idea is excluded in the qualifications for suffrage in all
the State constitutions. (_Id._, 5, 6.)

Mr. SARGENT.--What clause is he commenting on?

Mr. MERRIMON.--He is commenting on section 2 of article 1. He
says further:

American citizenship does not necessarily depend upon nor
co-exist with the legal capacity to hold office or the right
of suffrage, either or both of them.

No person in the United States did ever exercise the right
of suffrage in virtue of the naked, unassisted fact of
citizenship. (_Id._)

There is a distinction between political rights and
political powers. The former belong to all citizens alike,
and cohere in the very name and nature of citizenship. The
latter (voting and holding office) does not belong to all
citizens alike, nor to any citizen merely in virtue of
citizenship. His power always depends upon extraneous facts
and superadded qualifications; which facts and
qualifications are common to both citizens and aliens.
(Bates on Citizenship.)

I read these hasty citations of authority which happen to be
convenient to show that there is a distinction between political
power and political rights, and in further support of the
distinction between citizenship, or civil rights, and political
rights.

Mr. SARGENT.--Will my friend allow me a moment?

Mr. MERRIMON.--Yes, sir.

Mr. SARGENT.--The author there is commenting on the second
section of the first article of the Constitution, and I think his
reasoning on that upon general principles may be correct, at any
rate it is in consonance with the authority that he cites. But
it will be observed that by the XIV. article, section 1, it is
provided that--

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and
subjec