Within this
limit, it is unnecessary for us to deny that the States may still
regulate and control the exercise of the right.
The only provisions of the constitution, which it can be contended
conflict with the construction which has here been put upon the first
section of the fourteenth amendment, are the fifteenth amendment, and
the second section of the fourteenth.
In regard to the fifteenth amendment, I shall only say, that if my
interpretation of the fourteenth amendment is correct, there was still
an object to be accomplished and which was accomplished by the
fifteenth. The prohibition of any action abridging the privileges and
immunities of citizens, contained in the fourteenth amendment, applies
only to the States, and leaves the United States government free to
abridge the political privileges and immunities of citizens of the
United States, as such, at its pleasure. By the fifteenth amendment both
the United States and the State governments, are prohibited from
exercising this power, "on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude" of the citizen.
The first remark to be made upon the second section of the fourteenth
amendment is, that it does not give and was not designed to give to the
States any power to deny or abridge the right of any citizen to exercise
the elective franchise.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67