The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-04-08
FEMALE SUFFRAGE.

Decision OF the supreme Court Denying the
Right of Women to Vote.
The following is an abstract of the
opinion recently delivered by the United
States Supreme Court, in the case of
Miner VS.. Hoppersatt, denying to women
the right of suffrage. The opinion was
delivered by Chief-Justice Waite, all the
Associated Justices concurring
This is the case presenting the question
whether under the Fourteenth Amendment a
woman who is a citizen of the United States
and of a State is a voter in the State, notwith-
standiAg the provisions of the Constitution and
the laws of that State confne the right of suf-
frage to men alone. 1t is said that women are
citizens. They are persons, and therefore,
under the Fourteenth Amendment declared to
be citizens of the State wherein they reside
But it 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 its
adoption was one of the people became a citizen.
All children born of citizen parents within the
jurisdiction are themselves citizens. The nat
uralization laws are reviewed to 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 women any more than
it did of men, and thus minors rights do not
depend upon it. She has always been a citizen
from her birth, entitled to all the privileges,
immunities, etc., of citizenship. The amend
ment prohibited the State in which she lives
from abridging any of those rights. The right
of suffrage is not made in terms one of the
privileges of the citizen. The United States
has no voters, and no one can vote for Federal,
without being competent to vote for State Off
GERS. 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 mmunities of the citizen: it simply
furnished an additional guarantee for the pro-
lection of such as he already had. Nor is the
right of suffrage co-extensive with the citizen
ship of the State. When the Federal Constitu-
ton was adopted, all the States but Rhode
Island had Constitutions of their own, in not
one of which were all citizens recognized as
entitled to this right. And under all these cir
cumstances it cannot be for moment doubted
that if it had been intended to make citizens of
the United States voters the trainers Of the
Constitution would have SO expressed that inten-
ton, and not have left so important change in
the condition of citizenship, as it then existed,
to implication. But if further evidence is
needed it is to be found in the provisions of the
of citizenship, then the provisions of the Con-
stltution which gives citizens of each State all
the privileges and immunitieS of citizens 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 representatives, were
cited to the same point But still again, after
the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment it
was found necessary to use in the Fifteenth
Amendment the following 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 condition of servitude" The Four
teenth Amendment had provided against any
abridgment of the privileges or immunities
of citizens, and if the right of suffrage
is one of them, why amend the Con-
stitution further to prevent it's being
denied on account of race color, etc.? The
duty of the United States to guarantee to the
State republican form of government is dis
charged in protecting those governments which
were recognized as being republican in form by
the Constitution when adopted. The govern
ments of the States being then accepted it must
be assumed that they are such as are to be
guaranteed. The admission of new States is
then considered, and it lis found that there is
nothing to favor the idea that suffrage is right
of citizenship, but everything to repeal it also,
the restoration of the States to the Union after
the war, none Of them having provided for fe-
male suffrage. Besides, person who has sim
ply declared his intentions to become citizen
of the United States may vote under certain
in Missouri and other States. and
this could not be if suffrage depended upon the
right of citizenship. The court are unanimous
in the opinion that the Constitution of the
United States does not confer the right Of suf-
frage upon any one and that the Constitutions of
the several States which commit the trust to
men alone are not necessarily void. Affirmed