isfactory to some of the States as it would
have been difficult to the convention. The provision made by
the convention appears, therefore, to be the best that lay
within their option. It must be satisfactory to every State;
because it is conformable to the standard already
established, or which may be established by the State
itself. It will be safe to the United States; because, being
fixed by the State Constitutions, it is not alterable by the
State Governments, and it can not be feared that the people
of the States will alter this part of their constitutions in
such a manner as to abridge the rights secured to them by
the Federal Constitution.

Again, in the XV. Amendment, suffrage is recognized as an
existing right of Federal citizenship. It is not created by that
Amendment. It was already existing. The language is:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State,
on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.

A right must exist before it can be denied. There can be no
denial of a thing that has no existence. If it should be said the
XV. Amendment relates only to the negro, we reply that this would
be no answer, even if true, which may be doubted; but the point
we are now discussing is the statement of the Court that the
United States has no voters in the States of its own creation, or
in other words, that Federal suffrage does not exist; we have
shown that this a mistake, it being recognized in the
Constitution; and as the argument of the Court was based on its
non-existence it consequently falls to the ground. This really
disposes of the case, but we will notice other points. The Court
says:

After the adoption of the XIV. Amendment, it was deemed
necessary to have a XV: ... The XIV. Amendment had already
provided that no State should make or enforce any law which
should abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of
the United States. If suffrage was one of these privileges
or immunities, why amend the Constitution to prevent its
being denied on account of race, etc.? Nothing is more
evident than that the greater