The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-03-29
ARGUMENT
OF Isabella B. Hooker before the Senate
Committee on Judiciary.

III W ANlA Jul NOuA NSoA7 III
vitatiOn of the 10th, l have the honor TO
present to you an argument upon this
question:
Are 1COBlen entitled TO cote under the
United States Constitution, as amended?
1t is not important to inquire what
was the status of women before the
adoption of the fourteenth amendment.
BY that amendment they are clearly
made citizens. No one denies this. The
first section of the amendment is as fol-
lows:
"All persons born or naturalized in
the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens Of the
United States and of the State wherein
they reside. No State shall make or en-
force any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens Of
the United States"
The whole question is, what is the
meaning of the term ''citizen" as here
used. The term is familiar to law and
politics, and the authorities are very
numerous and uncontradicted which
make citizenship include the right to
vote. These authorities consist of lexi-
cographers, English and American, and
legal and political writers.
1t is said, however, that to give the
term a meaning by which women be-
come voters under ii is contrary to the
actual intent of Congress and the state
Legislatures in passing the amendment,
as, unquestionably, the Legislators who
voted for it had personally, with, per-
haps, few eXceptions,) no thought OF
enfranchising women.
To this il is replied: ]. That the ques-
ton is not whether they thought of en-
franchising aromen, but whether they
used the term as a term of eIlfrdnclise-
naeylt at all: for if il would have enfran-
chised black men, il would have equally
enfranchised women, and unquestiona-
bly, the predominant idea IN these legls-
lators was a political benent, not very
precisely measured to black men. :. An
iD0uirv as TO actual intent in such case
as never admissible. A rule that al
lowed it would make every law uncer-
tain. An enactment can be construed
only by the language in fact used, and
where that language is doubtful, by
other parts of the same enactment, and
by a consideration of the public evil
which the law was intended to remedy.
The evil to be remedied in this case was
the political disadvantage under which
black men, made free by the thirteenth
amendment, still labOred. The object
was to give them a positive political
benefit. The terms used are such that,
necessarily and confessedly, whatever
benefit accrues to black men under il ac-
crues equally to women.
It is said, in the next place, that the
term "citiZen" has acquired a meaning
in American usage, legal and political,
that does not carry with it the idea Of
suffrage; and the report of the majority
of the Judiciary Committee on the
Woodruff memorial places its adverse
construction of this amendment entirely
on the ground of an American use of the
term i'm its restricted sense. Such a use
of the term undoubtedly exists. Web
ster recognizes il, and so do some of our
political writers. But this meaning is
a secondary and lower one, and has not
attained such dignity of use as to en-
crOach at all upon the well-established
general meaning, and would not be pre-
sumed in a law, much less in a cOnstitu-
ton. The American authorities are
strongly in favor of the larger meaning.
The term is used in the second section
of the original Constitution, article four,
which provides that "the citizens oil
each State shall be entitled to all priv
ileges and immunities of citizens in the
several States.r In Corfield as. COryell
4 Wash. c. c. r., $50, the court says
"The inquiry is what are the privileges
and immunities of citizens in the sew
eraI States? They may be all cOmpre
hended under the following genera
heads: Here follows a statement o
numerous rights, civil and political
closing as follows:) "TO which may b'
added the electiUe franchise as regulated
and established by the laws or cOnstitu
tion of the State in which it is to be eX
4 81 -, ha nrad Scott
l9 Howard, 49, Mr.. Justice Daniel says
"There is not, it is believed, to b,
found in the theories of writers on gov
eminent, or in any actual experiment
heretofore tried an exposition of the
term Citizen which has not been un
derstOod as comforting the actual posses
sion and enjoyment, or the perfect righ
of acquisition and enjoyment, of an en-
tire equality of privileges, civil and pO
litical." And the supreme court o
Kentucky, ! Little r., 333, says: "NC
one can, in the correct sense of the term
beacitizen of q State who is not entitled
upon the terms prescribed by the insti
tutions of the State, to all the rights and
privileges conferred by those institu.
tions upon the highest class of society,"
These are American authorities, and
would seem to settle the question that
the term has not acquired distinctive
American meaning variant from the
well-established general meaning.
1t is said, in the next place, and fl
nally, that the second section of the four
teenth amendment shows clearly that
the term "citizen" could not have been
used in the sense of full citizenship.
This objection is the most serious one
that the argument encounters. That
SacfiOn sO far aS relates to this subject
is as follows: "When the right to vote
is denied to any of the male inhabitants
of such State being twenty-One years of
age and citizens of the United States,
the basis Of representation therein shall
be reduced in the proportion which the
number of such male citizen shall bear
10 the whole number of such male citi-
zens twenty-one years of age in such
State"
The consideration of this section is
perfectly legitimate in the inquiry as to
the meaning of the first section. 1t is
said, with great force, that here is an
implied admission that the States re-
tanned the power to exclude black men
from the right to vote, and it will be
asked why, if that right is absolutely
conferred by the first section, and is one
OF the privileges and immunities of citi-
Zens which no State NAV abridge, the
amendment does not boldly forbid apv
sueh state legislation, instead of merely
imposing certain limitations upon the
state that should assume to exercise
sueh right Of exclusion?
=. Two answers have been made bv Dub-
nc writers on the subject which are
merely speclous. One is, that if the
second section be construed as adp,;,.;nS,
State 10