l positions
are alike open to every one, and that, in the protection of these
rights, all are equal before the law. Any deprivation or
suspension of any of these rights, for past conduct, is
punishment, and can be in no otherwise defined.

Punishment not being therefore restricted, as contended by
counsel, to the deprivation of life, liberty, or property, but
also embracing deprivation or suspension of political or civil
rights, and the disabilities prescribed by the provisions of the
Missouri Constitution being in effect punishment, we proceed to
consider whether there is any inhibition in the Constitution of
the United States against their enforcement.--(Cummings _vs._ The
State of Missouri, 4 Wallace, 351-323, and _ex parte_
Garland--same volume.)

We are aware that the Supreme Court of Missouri, in the case of
Blair _vs._ Ridgley, hold a different view, but we submit that
the cases differ in a most material point, to wit: In the Blair
case he was merely required to take the oath taken by all voters;
and, by refusing to do so, he virtually disfranchised himself. In
this case, however, the disfranchisement of the plaintiff is
arbitrary and insurmountable; and we further submit, that the
arguments in this case present it in a different, and, we think,
a broader view than was taken in the Blair case. But to show that
we are not unsupported by authority in this matter, we will now
quote from a New York case, very similar to the Blair case, where
the elector was required, but refused to take the oath, etc.

MILLER, J.: This case involves the constitutional validity
of that portion of the act to provide for a convention to
revise and amend the Constitution of this State, which
excludes from the privilege of voting all who refuse to take
the test oath prescribed by the act in question.

I think that the oath in question was unconstitutional and
invalid, for the reasons which I will proceed to state. The
first subdivision of the tenth section of the first article
of the Constitution of the United States provides, that "no
State shall pass any bill of attainder, _ex post facto_ law,
or laws impairing the obligations of contracts, or grant any
title of nobility." The provision of th