ly whether
suffrage is necessarily one of them.

It certainly is nowhere made so in express terms. The United
States has no voters in the States of its own creation. The
elective officers of the United States are all elected directly
or indirectly by State voters. The members of the House of
Representatives are to be chosen by the people of the States, and
the electors in each State must have the qualifications requisite
for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature
(art. 1, sec. 2, Const.) Senators are to be chosen by the
Legislatures of the States, and, necessarily, the members of the
Legislature required to make the choice are elected by the voters
of the State (art. 1, sec. 3). Each State must appoint, in such
manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, the electors to
elect the President and Vice-President (art. 2, sec. 2). The
times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and
Representatives are to be prescribed in each State by the
Legislature thereof; but Congress may at any time by law make or
alter such regulations, except as to the place of choosing
Senators (art. 1, sec. 4). It is not necessary to inquire whether
this power of supervision thus given to Congress is sufficient to
authorize any interference with the State laws prescribing the
qualifications of voters, for no such interference has ever been
attempted. The power of the State in this particular is certainly
supreme until Congress acts.

The Amendment did not add to the privileges and immunities of a
citizen. It simply furnished an additional guaranty for the
protection of such as he already had. No new voters were
necessarily made by it. Indirectly it may have had that effect,
because it may have increased the number of citizens entitled to
suffrage under the Constitution and laws of the States, but it
operates for this purpose, if at all, through the States and the
State laws, and not directly upon the citizen.

It is clear, therefore, we think, that the Constitution has not
added the right of suffrage to the privileges and immunities of
citizenship as they existed at the time it was adopted. This
makes it proper to inquire whether suffrage was co-extensive with
the citizenship of the States at the time of its adoption. If it