Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-04-15
Decision OF the Supreme Court on
the Woman-Suffrage Question.

The recent decision of the U1ted
States Supreme Court in regard to'the
constitutional right of women to vote, as
delivered by Chief-Justice Waite anG
unanimously concurred in by the other
Judges of the court, is as follows:
Miner vs Hoppersatt; error to the Supreme
Court of Missouri. This Is the case present
ing the question whether under the Four
teenth Amendment q woman, who is a citizen
of the United States and of State, is voter
in the State notwithstanding the provisions OF
the Constitution and the laws of that State
confine the right of suffrage to men alone. 1t
is said that women are citizens. They are per-
sons, and are, under the Fourteenth Amend
ment, declared to be citizens OF the State
wherein they reside. But 1t did not require
that amendment to make them such. They
were before persons and people, and were not
in terms excluded from citizenship by the
Constitution. The Federal Constitution
was ordained by the people Of the
United States, composed of the people
of the several States, and whoever at
the time Of the adoption was one of the peo-
pie became citizen. All children of parents
within the jurisdiction are themselves citi-
zens. The Naturalization laws are reviewed
to show that show that women have always
been considered citizens the same as men;
also the laws giving jurisdiction In Federal
cases. 1t Is then said that the Fourteenth
Amendment did not affect the citizenship Of
any woman any more than 1t did Of men, and
thus Mrs. Miners rights do not depend upon
it, She has also been citizen from her birth,
entitled to all the privileges, immunities,
ETC., of citizenship. The amendments pro-
hibitcd the State In which she lives from
abridging any of those rights. The right OF
suffrage Is not made in terms one of the priv
ileges of the citizen. The United States has
no voters, and no one can vote for Federal
without being competent to vote for State off,
cars. The elective officers of the United
States are chosen directly or indirectly by
the voters of the States. The amendment
did not add to the privileges or immunities of
tie citizens; 1t simply furnishes an additional
guarantee for the protection of such as he al
ready had. Nor Is the right Of suffrage CO.
extensive with the citizenship of the States.
When the Federal Constitution was adopted
all the States but Rhode Island had Constitu-
tions OF their own, In not one of which were
all citizens recognized as entitled to this
right And under all these circumstances it
cannot be for moment doubted that, II it
had been intended to make citizens Of the
United States voters, the trainers of the Con-
stitution would have SO expressed that inten-
ton. and nothave left 80 important change
In the condition Of citizenship, as it then ex-
listed, to implication. But II further evidence
is needed it is to be found in the provisions
of the Constitution. II suffrage is necessarily
part Of citizenship, then the provis-
ions OF the Constitution which gave citi-
zens of each State all the privileges
and immunities of citizenship in the
several States would entitle the citizens of
each State to the right to vote In the several
States, precisely as the citizens of those
States are. Other provisions, among them
that relating to the apportionment Of Repre-
sentatives, were cited to the same point But
still again, after the adoption of the Four
teenth Amendment 1t was found necessary to
use in the Fifteenth Amendment the follow
ing language: "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 condi-
ton of servitude." The Fourteenth Amend
ment had provided against any abridgement
Of the privileges or immunities of citi zens
and If the right Of suffrage is one of them,
why amend the Constitution further to prevent
its being denied on account Of race, color, ETC.
The duty OF the United States to guarantee to
the State republican form of government