e the negro votes to-day in Missouri, there is not a
syllable of affirmative legislation by the State conferring the
right upon him. Whence, then, does he derive it? There is but one
reply. The XIV. Amendment conferred upon the negro race in this
country citizenship of the United States, and the ballot followed
as an incident to that condition. Or, to use the more forcible
language of this Court, in the Slaughter-house cases (16 Wall.,
71), "the negro having, by the XIV. Amendment, been declared a
citizen of the United States, is thus made a voter in every State
of the Union." If this be true of the negro citizen of the United
States, it is equally true of the woman citizen. And we invoke
the interposition of of this Court to effect, by its decree, that
which the Supreme Court of Missouri should have done, and declare
that this objectionable word must be omitted, or considered as
omitted from the Constitution and registration law of said State.

It can not be pretended that the Constitution of the United
States makes, or permits to be made, any distinction between its
citizens in their rights and privileges; that the negro has a
right which is denied to the woman. The discrimination,
therefore, made and continued by the State of Missouri, of which
we complain, is an unjustifiable act of arbitrary power, not of
right, and can be designated by no other term.

We proceed with our quotation from the opinion:

In this changed state of affairs, it was thought by those
who originated and adopted this Amendment, that it was
absolutely necessary that these emancipated people should
have the elective franchise, in order to enable them to
protect themselves against unfriendly legislation, in which
they could take no part; that unless these people had the
right to vote, and thus protect themselves against
oppression, their freedom from slavery would be a mockery,
and their condition but little improved. It was to remedy
this that the XIV. Amendment to the Constitution was
adopted. It was to compel the former slave States to give
these freedmen the right of suffrage, and to give them all
of the rights of other citizens of the respective States,
and thus make them equal with other citiz