gulate the qualifications of voters belonged
exclusively to the respective States. The petition under
consideration fully recognizes this, but it raises the
question (although studiously framed in such a manner as not
to declare or insist upon such a conclusion) whether, by the
XIV. and XV. Amendments to the Constitution of the United
States, natives of foreign countries who have become
citizens of the United States are not entitled to vote in
Rhode Island, without regard to the qualifications imposed
by her Constitution?

The committee is unanimously of the opinion that this
question must be answered in the negative.

The "privileges and immunities of citizens of the United
States" mentioned in the petition as secured by the XIV.
Amendment do not include the right of suffrage. If they did,
the right must necessarily exist in _all_ citizens of the
United States from the mere fact of citizenship, without the
power in any State or in Congress to abridge the same in any
degree; and in such case, therefore, no qualification of any
kind could be imposed, and all persons (being citizens),
males and females, infants, lunatics, and criminals, without
respect to age, length of residence, or any other thing,
would be entitled to participate directly in all elections.
Every provision in every State which experience has proved
to be essential to security and good order in society would
thereby be overthrown. It is enough to say that the rights
secured by this amendment to the constitution are of an
altogether different character.

The XV. Amendment does apply to rights of suffrage, and to
those only. By it the State of Rhode Island, in common with
every other State, is forbidden to deny or abridge the right
of citizens of the United States "to vote on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude." But,
plainly, the constitution of Rhode Island does not preclude
any citizen from voting on either or any of the grounds thus
prohibited. No fact of race, or color, or previous servitude
prevents any citizen from voting in Rhode Island. Neither of
these quali