is second section; from which it follows, that
the right to vote is not one of the "privileges or immunities"
which the first section declares shall not be abridged by any
State. The right of female suffrage is also inferentially denied
by that provision of the second section, above quoted, which
provides that when a State shall deny the right to vote to any
male citizen,

The basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the
proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear
to the whole number of male citizens in such State.

In the first place, it is to be observed that the basis of
representation in a State, which is the whole number of
persons--male and female, adults and infants--is only to be
reduced when the State shall exclude a portion "of the male
inhabitants of such State." The exclusion of female inhabitants,
and infants under the age of twenty-one years, does not effect a
reduction of the basis of representation in such State. And,
again, when a State does exclude a portion of its male
inhabitants, etc., the basis of representation in such State is
not reduced in the proportion which the number of such excluded
males bears to the number of persons--male and female--in such
State; but only

In the proportion which the number of such (excluded) male
citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens
twenty-one years of age in such State.

This provision assumes that females are no part of the voting
population of a State. The XV. Amendment is equally decisive. It
recognizes the right--that is, power--of any State to exclude a
portion of its citizens from the right to vote, and only narrows
this right in favor of a particular class. Its language is:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged, etc., on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.

This amendment was wholly unnecessary upon the theory that the
XIV. Amendment had established or recognized the right of every
citizen to vote. It recognizes the right of a State to exclude a
portion of its citizens, and only restrains that power so far as
to provide that citizens shall not be excluded on account of
race, color, or previous condition of