in his brave protests against the XIV. and XV.
Amendments, insisted that, so soon as by the XIII. Amendment the
slaves became free men, the original powers of the United States
Constitution guaranteed to them equal rights--the right to vote
and to be voted for:

I do not hesitate to say that when the slaves of our country
became "citizens," they took their place in the body politic
as a component part of the "people," entitled to equal
rights, and under the protection of these two guardian
principles: First, that all just governments stand on the
consent of the governed; and second, that taxation without
representation is tyranny; and these rights it is the duty
of Congress to guarantee as essential to the idea of a
Republic.

The preamble of the Constitution of the State of New York
declares:

We, the people of the State of New York, grateful to
Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its
blessings, do establish this Constitution.

Here is not the slightest intimation, either of receiving freedom
from the United States Constitution, or of the State conferring
the blessings of liberty upon the people; and the same is true of
every one of the thirty-six State Constitutions. Each and all
alike declare rights God-given, and that to secure the people in
the enjoyment of their inalienable rights, is their one and only
object in ordaining and establishing government. And all of the
State constitutions are equally emphatic in their recognition of
the ballot as the means of securing the people in the enjoyment
of these rights. Article 1 of the New York State Constitution
says:

No member of this State shall be disfranchised or deprived
of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof,
unless by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers.

And so carefully guarded is the citizen's right to vote, that the
Constitution makes special mention of all who may not vote:

Laws may be passed excluding from the right of suffrage all
persons who have been or may be convicted of bribery,
larceny, or any infamous crime.

In naming the various employments that shall not affect the
residence of voters, the 3d section of Article