t of the United States, who are thus charged with its
fulfillment and guaranty.

By ratifying this Amendment the several States have relinquished
and quit-claimed, so to speak, to the United States, all claim or
right, on their part, to "make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United
States." The State of Missouri, therefore, is estopped from
longer claiming this right to limit the franchise to "males," as
a State prerogative; and the Supreme Court of Missouri should
have so declared, and its failure to do so is error; because, by
retaining that word in the State Constitution and laws, not this
plaintiff only, but large numbers of other citizens of the United
States are "abridged" in the exercise of their "privileges and
immunities as citizens of the United States," by being deprived
of their right or privilege to vote for United States officers,
as claimed by the plaintiff in her petition. Not only this, but
we say further, that the ratification of this amendment was, in
intendment of law, a solemn agreement, on the part of the States,
that all existing legislation inconsistent therewith should be
repealed, or considered as repealed, and that none of like
character should take place in the future. The State of Missouri
has acted upon this idea in part, and its subsequent legislation,
on the subject of the ballot, has been as follows: The
ratification of the XV. Amendment (which we do not consider as
having any direct bearing on the point now being considered,
inasmuch as this Amendment is merely prohibitory--not conferring
any right, but treating the ballot in the hands of the negro as
an existing fact, and forbidding his deprivation thereof). Next,
amending the State Constitution and registration law, by simply
omitting the word "white" from the clause "white male citizens."

This constitutes the entire legislation of the State of Missouri
on this subject since the adoption of the XIV. Amendment, and
this omission of the word "white" was designed to make the State
Constitution conform to the Amendment, so far as the negro was
concerned, leaving the women citizens of the United States still
under the ban of "involuntary servitude," in plain violation of
the Amendment.

So that, whil