nities under the paramount authority of
the Federal Government, and its courts would be bound to
maintain and enforce them, the Constitution and laws of the
State to the contrary notwithstanding. And if the States
could limit or restrict them, or place the party in an
inferior grade, this clause of the Constitution would be
unmeaning, and could have no operation, and would give no
rights to the citizen when in another State. He would have
none but what the State itself chose to allow him. This is
evidently not the construction or meaning of the clause in
question. It guarantees rights to the citizen, and the State
can not withhold them. (Dred Scott _vs._ Sanford, 19
Howard's Rep., pp. 405 and 422.)

Now, substitute in the above, for "persons of the African race,"
women, who are "citizens of the State and of the United States,"
and you have the key to the whole position. We will now consider
the clauses of the Constitution before recited, somewhat in
detail:

As to "bills of attainder," "due process of law," etc. "No State
shall pass any bill of attainder," etc. A bill of attainder is a
legislative act which inflicts punishment without a judicial
trial. If the punishment be less than death, the act is termed a
bill of pains and penalties. Within the meaning of the
Constitution, bills of attainder include bills of pains and
penalties. In these cases the legislative body, in addition to
its legitimate functions, exercises the powers and office of
judge; it assumes, in the language of the text-book, judicial
magistracy; it pronounces upon the guilt of the party, without
any of the forms or safeguards of trial; it determines the
sufficiency of the proofs produced, whether conformable to the
rules of evidence or otherwise, and it fixes the degree of
punishment in accordance with its own notions of the enormity of
the offense. These bills are generally directed against the
individuals by name, but they may be directed against a whole
class.

The theory upon which our political institutions rest, is, that
all men have certain inalienable rights--that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and that, in the
pursuit of happiness, all avocations, all honors, al