d of an
entire equality of privileges, civil and political. And not only
the black man, but the black woman, and all women as well. And it
was not until after the abolition of slavery, by which the
negroes became free men, hence citizens, that the United States
Attorney-General Bates rendered a contrary opinion:

The Constitution uses the word "citizen" only to express the
political quality (not equality, mark) of the individual in
his relation to the nation; to declare that he is a member
of the body politic, and bound to it by the reciprocal
obligations of allegiance on the one side, and protection on
the other. The phrase "a citizen of the United States,"
without addition or qualification, means neither more nor
less than a member of the nation.

Then, to be a citizen of this Republic, is no more than to be a
subject of an Empire. You and I, and all true and patriotic
citizens must repudiate this base conclusion. We all know that
American citizenship, without addition or qualification, means
the possession of equal rights, civil and political. We all know
that the crowning glory of every citizen of the United States is,
that he can either give or withhold his vote from every law and
every legislator under the government. Did "I am a Roman
citizen," mean nothing more than that I am a "member" of the body
politic of the Republic of Rome, bound to it by the reciprocal
obligations of allegiance on the one side, and protection on the
other? When you, young man, shall travel abroad among the
monarchies of the old world, and there proudly boast yourself an
"American citizen," will you thereby declare yourself neither
more nor less than a "member" of the American nation?

And this opinion of Attorney-General Bates, that a black citizen
was not a voter, made merely to suit the political exigency of
the Republican party in that transition hour between emancipation
and enfranchisement, was no less infamous, in spirit or purpose,
than was the decision of Judge Taney, that a black man was not
one of the people, rendered in the interest and at the behest of
the old Democratic party, in its darkest hour of subjection to
the Slave power. Nevertheless, all of the adverse arguments,
adverse congressional report