without being allowed to own it; that they
were not permitted to give testimony in cases where a white man
was a party. They were excluded from performing particular kinds
of business, profitable and reputable, and they were denied the
right of suffrage. To meet the difficulties arising from this
state of things, the XIV. and XV. Amendments were enacted.

The XIV. Amendment created and defined citizenship of the United
States. It had long been contended, and had been held by many
learned authorities, and had never been judicially decided to the
contrary, that there was no such thing as a citizen of the United
States, except as that condition arose from citizenship of some
State. No mode existed, it was said, of obtaining a citizenship
of the United States except by first becoming a citizen of some
State. This question is now at rest. The XIV. Amendment defines
and declares who shall be citizens of the United States, to wit:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject
to the jurisdiction thereof." The latter qualification was
intended to exclude the children of foreign representatives and
the like. With this qualification every person born in the United
States or naturalized is declared to be a citizen of the United
States, and of the State wherein he resides.

After creating and defining citizenship of the United States, the
Amendment provides that no State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of a citizen of
the United States. This clause is intended to be a protection,
not to all our rights, but to our rights as citizens of the
United States only; that is, the rights existing or belonging to
that condition or capacity. (The words "or citizen of a State,"
used in the previous paragraph, are carefully omitted here.) In
article 4, paragraph 2, of the Constitution of the United States
it had been already provided in this language, viz: "The citizens
of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and
immunities of the citizens in the several States." The rights of
citizens of the States and of citizens of the United States are
each guarded by these different provisions. That these rights
were separate and distinct, was held in the Slaughter-house
Cases recently decided by th