sed
the right to act, as to the matter of suffrage, just as they
pleased--to limit or extend it, as they saw proper. And this is
the popular idea on the subject. Men accept it as a matter of
fact, and take for granted it must be right. So in the days of
African slavery, thousands believed it to be right--even a Divine
institution. But this belief has passed away; and, in like
manner, this doctrine of the right of the States to exercise
unlimited and absolute control over the elective franchise of
citizens of the United States, must and will give way to a truer
and better understanding of the subject. The plaintiff's case is
simply one of the means by which this end will ultimately be
reached.

We claim, and presume it will not be disputed, that the elective
franchise is a privilege of citizenship within the meaning of the
Constitution of the United States. In order to get a clearer idea
of the true meaning of this term citizenship, it may be well to
recur for a moment to its first introduction and use in American
law.

Before the colonists asserted their independence they were
politically bound to the sovereign of Great Britain, by what is
termed in English law, "allegiance"; and those from whom this
allegiance was due were termed "subjects." But when these
"bands," as they are termed in the Declaration of Independence,
were dissolved, the political relation became changed, and we no
longer hear in the United States the term "subject" and
"allegiance," except the latter, which is used to express the
paramount duty of our citizens to our own government. The term
citizen was substituted for that of "subject." But this was not a
mere change of name; the men who framed the Constitution of the
United States had all been "subjects" of the English king, and
they well knew the radical change wrought by the revolution.

In the new political sovereignty thus created, the feudal idea of
dependence gave way to that of independence, and the people
became their own sovereigns or rulers in the government of their
own creation. Of this body politic, represented by the
Constitution of the United States, all persons born or
naturalized therein and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
members; without distinction as to political rights or