"
* * * * *
Section 5. "The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article."
FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.
Section 1. "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."
Section 2. "The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation."
By reference to the provisions of the original Constitution, here
recited, it appears that prior to the thirteenth, if not until the
fourteenth, amendment, the whole power over the elective franchise, even
in the choice of Federal officers, rested with the States. The
Constitution contains no definition of the term "citizen," either of the
United States, or of the several States, but contents itself with the
provision that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the
privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States." The States
were thus left free to place such restrictions and limitations upon the
"privileges and immunities" of citizens as they saw fit, so far as is
consistent with a republican form of government, subject only to the
condition that no State could place restrictions upon the "privileges or
immunities" of the citizens of any other State, which would not be
applicable to its own citizens under like circumstances.
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