but yet they do vote. There is no possible, no conceivable, means
by which they legally can vote, except by the operation of the
XIV. Amendment. It may be said that if that is the case the XV.
Amendment was not necessary. Well, admit it was not. It was very
well said by Justice Swayne, in the case of the United States
_vs._ Rhodes, in answer to the argument that if the XIII.
Amendment conferred certain rights upon the colored man it was
unnecessary to pass the Civil Rights Bill; "that it was not
necessary, but it was well to do it to prevent doubts and
differences of opinion." It is not well to leave any man's rights
and liberties subject even to a doubt, and the Congress of the
United States had better adopt amendment after amendment than to
allow the slightest cloud to rest upon the tenure of the rights
of the American citizen....

The Constitution has formulated into law the Declaration of
Independence. We were one hundred years coming to it; but we have
reached it at last--certainly by recognizing the political rights
of the black man--and, as I believe, those of woman; and that is
all this Court is called upon here to declare, to wit: that the
Declaration of Independence has been enacted into law, and that
you will see that that law is enforced.

* * * * *

If I have established, as I believe I have, that under the first
section of the XIV. Amendment women have the right to vote, and
there is any particular limitation in the second section that
contradicts it, that part of the amendment falls void and
useless, so far as its effect upon woman is concerned. There is
the declaration of the general principles expressly stated; and,
if there is anything contradictory, "the particular and inferior
can not defeat the general and superior." (Lieber's Hermeneutics,
p. 120.) The great object of that XIV. Amendment, so far as it
can be deduced from the words in which it is expressed, is this:
that the rights of the citizens of the United States shall not be
abridged. If there is anything contradictory of that in the
subsequent sections, those sections must fall. But if the second
section affects this argument at all, it is because it seems, by
implication, to admit that the rights of certain male citizens of
t