o securing the
_personal_ rights of "life, liberty, property, and the equal protection
of the laws." The clause on which we rely, to wit:--"No State shall make
or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
citizens of the United States," might be stricken out of the section,
and the residue would secure to the citizen every right which is now
secured, excepting the political rights of voting and holding office.
_If the clause in question does not secure those political rights, it is
entirely nugatory, and might as well have been omitted._

If we go to the lexicographers and to the writers upon law, to learn
what are the privileges and immunities of the "citizen" in a republican
government, we shall find that the leading feature of citizenship is the
enjoyment of the right of suffrage.

The definition of the term "citizen" by _Bouvier_ is: "One who under the
constitution and laws of the United States, has a right to vote for
Representatives in Congress, and other public officers, and who is
qualified to fill offices in the gift of the people."

By _Worcester_--"An inhabitant of a republic who enjoys the rights of a
freeman, and has a right to vote for public officers."

By _Webster_--"In the United States, a person, native or naturalized,
who has the privilege of exercising the elective franchise, or the
qualifications which enable him to vote for rulers, and to purchase and
hold real estate."

The meaning of the word "citizen" is directly and plainly recognized by
the latest amendment of the constitution (the fifteenth.)

"_The right of the 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." This clause assumes
that the right of citizens, _as such_, to vote, is an existing right.

Mr. Richard Grant White, in his late work on Words and their Uses, says
of the word citizen: "A citizen is a person who has certain political
rights, and the word is properly used only to imply or suggest the
possession of these rights."

Mr. Justice Washington, in the case of _Corfield vs. Coryell (4 Wash,
C.C. Rep. 380)_, speaking of the "privileges and immunities" of the
citizen, as mentioned in Sec. 2, Art. 4, of the constitution, after
enumerating the personal rights mentioned above, and some others, as
embraced by those terms, says, "to which may be added the elective
franchise, as re