o a State where the
common law in this regard prevailed, could not buy and sell
property in her own name, or contract in reference thereto.

But the XIV. Amendment executes itself in every State of the
Union. Whatever are the privileges and immunities of a citizen in
the State of New York, such citizen, emigrating, carries them
with him into any other State of the Union. It utters the will of
the United States in every State, and silences every State
constitution, usage, or law which conflicts with it. If to be
admitted to the bar, on attaining the age and learning required
by law, be one of the privileges of a white citizen in the State
of New York, it is equally the privilege of a colored citizen in
that State; and if in that State, then in any State. If no State
may "make or enforce any law" to abridge the privileges of a
citizen, it must follow that the privileges of all citizens are
the same. We have already seen that the right to vote is not one
of those privileges which are declared to be common to all
citizens, and which no State may abridge; but that it is a
political right, which any State may deny to a citizen, except on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It
therefore only remains to determine whether admission to the bar
belongs to that class of privileges which a State may not
abridge, or that class of political rights as to which a State
may discriminate between its citizens.

In discussing this subject, we are compelled to use the words
"privileges and immunities" and the word "rights" in the precise
sense in which they are employed in the Constitution. In popular
language, and even in the general treatises of law writers, the
words "rights" and "privileges" are used synonymously. Those
privileges which are secured to a man by the law are his rights;
and the great charter of England declares that the ancient
privileges enjoyed by Englishmen, are the undoubted rights of
Englishmen. But, as we have seen, the XIV. and XV. Amendments
distinguish between privileges and rights; and it must be
confessed that it is paradoxical to say, as the XIV. Amendment
clearly does, that the "privileges" of a citizen shall not be
abridged, while his "right" to vote may be. But a judicial
construction of the Constituti