ens before the law.

It would be impossible for us to give any better reason for
woman's need of the ballot than the court has here given for that
of the negro, except that woman's condition is even more helpless
than his--"unless these people had the right to vote, and thus
protect themselves against oppression, their freedom from slavery
would be a mockery." How an American judge, with the claim of an
American citizen before him, for the protection, which, as he
truly says, this ballot alone can give, could see its lawfulness
and justice in the one case, and not in the other, passes our
comprehension.

We again quote from the opinion:

It was only intended to give the freedmen the same rights
that were secured to all other classes of citizens in the
State, and that if the other male inhabitants of the State
over the age of twenty-one years enjoyed the right of
suffrage, so should the males among the freedmen over the
age of twenty-one years enjoy the same right; it was not
intended that females, or persons under the age of
twenty-one years, should have the right of suffrage
conferred on them.

In reply to this, we might content ourselves with saying that it
is mere assertion, and can hardly be dignified as argument; but
we answer, that if the XIV. Amendment does not secure the ballot
to woman, neither does it to the negro; for it does not in terms
confer the ballot upon any one. As we have already shown, it is
the altered condition of citizenship that secures to the negro
this right; but this plaintiff might well reply, I was born to
that condition, and yet am denied its privileges.

We quote again, and finally, from the opinion:

This is not only shown by the history of the times when the
Amendment was adopted, and the circumstances which produced
it, but by reference to the second section of said
Amendment, it will be seen that the right to restrict the
right of suffrage to the male inhabitants by a State is
clearly recognized. If "the right to vote, etc., is denied
to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being
twenty-one years of age," etc., is the language used. This
clearly recognizes the right, and seems to anticipate the