aim that in every republic the right of suffrage, in some
form and to some extent, is not only one of the privileges of its
citizens, but is the first, most obvious and most important of
all the privileges they enjoy; that in this respect all citizens
are equal, and that the effect of this Amendment is, to prohibit
the States from enforcing any law which denies this right to any
of its citizens, or which imposes any restrictions upon it, which
are inconsistent with a republican form of government. Within
this limit, it is unnecessary for us to deny that the States may
still regulate and control the exercise of the right.

The only provisions of the Constitution which it can be contended
conflict with the construction which has here been put upon the
first section of the XIV. Amendment, are the XV. Amendment, and
the second section of the XIV. In regard to the XV. Amendment, I
shall only say, that if my interpretation of the XIV. is correct,
there was still an object to be accomplished and which was
accomplished by the XV. The prohibition of any action abridging
the privileges and immunities of citizens, contained in the XIV.
Amendment, applies only to the States, and leaves the United
States Government free to abridge the political privileges and
immunities of citizens of the United States, as such, at its
pleasure. By the XV. Amendment both the United States and the
State governments are prohibited from exercising this power, "on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude" of
the citizen.

The first remark to be made upon the second section of the XIV.
Amendment is, that it does not give, and was not designed to give
to the States any power to deny or abridge the right of any
citizen to exercise the elective franchise. So far as it touches
that subject, it was designed to be restrictive upon the States.
It gives to them no power whatever. It takes away no power, and
it gives none; but if the States possess the power to deny or
abridge the right of citizens to vote, it must be derived from
some other provision of the Constitution. I believe none such can
be found, which was not necessarily abrogated by the first
section of this Amendment. It may be conceded that the persons
who prepared this section supposed that, by other par