(The People vs. Perkins, 1 Wend. 91.
Jackson vs. Hawks, 2 Wend. 619. Fox vs. Smith. 3 Cowen, 23.)
The ground on which the right of the defendant to vote has been denied,
is, as I understand the decision of the court, "that the rights of the
citizens of the state as such were not under consideration in the
fourteenth amendment; that they stand as they did before that
amendment.... The right of voting or the privilege of voting is a right
or privilege arising under the constitution of the state, and not of the
United States. If the right belongs to any particular person, it is
because such person is entitled to it as a citizen of the state where he
offers to exercise it, and not because of citizenship of the United
States.... The regulation of the suffrage is conceded to the states as a
state right."
If this position be correct, which I am not now disposed to question, I
respectfully insist that the congress of the United States had no power
to pass the act in question, that by doing so it has attempted to usurp
the rights of the states, and that all proceedings under the act are
void.
I claim therefore that the defendant is entitled to a new trial.
First--Because she has been denied her right of trial by jury.
Second--Because she has been denied the right to ask the jury severally
whether they assented to the verdict which the court had recorded for
them.
Pages:
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119