er suffrage, or remove the exclusion
so that colored citizens can vote; if they have derived the
franchise from that, then the argument is against me. But, if it
does confer it, then judgment must go for me. Let us read it:

ARTICLE XV., Section 1. The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any State on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.

Sec. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation. (15 Stat., p. 316.)

You see in a moment this does not confer anything. It uses no
words of grant or grace, apt or otherwise, nor does it profess
to. It expressly recognizes, as an already existing fact, that
the citizens of the United States have the right to vote. The
right which shall thus be respected is a right peculiar to the
citizen--it is not a personal right, but a political right; and a
right to vote, the same one mentioned in the second section of
the XIV. Amendment--a right not created or conferred by the XV.
Amendment. It could not be, for it existed, and, as I have just
said, was spoken of in the XIV. Amendment; so that it must be as
old as that at the least. This amendment is a solemn mandate to
all concerned not to deny this right, because it existed, and
because it was of the highest value.

Justice WYLIE: It is not to be denied for either of the three
reasons mentioned.

Mr. RIDDLE: Yes, your honor, I have not reached that; I am now
only showing that it is a right--a citizen right--and older than
the XV. Amendment; but, if your honor intends to infer that,
because the right can not be denied in any one of those cases,
that, therefore, it may be in all others, then you have another
instance of a constitutional right to deny a constitutional
right; and, without vanity, I have already pulverized that
assumption. It is thus absolutely certain that colored male
citizens do not claim their admitted right to vote from this XV.
Amendment. They had it before, and this came in to protect and
secure them in its enjoyment. Whence did they derive it? From the
XIV. Amendment? If so, then did women acquire it by the same
amendment? Was it an inherent right in them as a part of "the