pon this. The appeal to arms and the
constitutional amendments were to establish the subordination of
the State to national supremacy, to maintain the national
authority over any and all subjects in which the rights and
privileges of the citizens of the United States were involved;
but this decision in Mrs. Minor's case completely nullifies the
supreme authority of the government, and gives the States more
than has hitherto been claimed for them by the advocates of State
rights. The subject of the franchise is thus wholly withdrawn
from federal supervision and control. If "the United States has
no citizens of its own creation," of course no supreme allegiance
can be claimed over the various citizens of the States.

The constitutional amendments cannot confer authority over a
matter which has no existence in the constitution. If it has no
voters, it can have nothing whatever to do with the elections and
voting in the States; yet the United States invaded the State of
New York, sent its officers there to try, convict, and sentence
Miss Anthony for exercising a right in her own State which they
declared the United States had no jurisdiction over. They send
United States troops into the South to protect the negro in his
right to vote, and then declare they have no jurisdiction over
his voting. Then, mark the grave results which may and can follow
this decision and legislation. I do not imagine that the Supreme
Court, in its cowardly dodging of woman's right to all the rights
and privileges which citizenship involves, designed to completely
abrogate the principles established by the recent contest, or to
nullify the ensuing legislation on the subject. But it certainly
has done all this; for it must logically follow that if the
United States has no citizens, it cannot legislate upon the
rights of citizens, and the recent amendments are devoid of
authority. It has well been suggested by Mr. Minor, in his
criticism of the decision, that if members of the House of
Representatives are elected by _State_ voters, as the Supreme
Court has declared, there is no reason why States may not refuse
to elect them as in 1860, and thus deprive congress of its power.
And if a sufficient number could be united to recall at their
pleasure these representatives, what a