CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



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States in which men are denied the elective 

 franchise for themselves and for all their pos- 

 terity are republican. They are aristocracies 

 more or less offensive to republican institutions 

 and to republican government ; and inasmuch 

 as by the Constitution the United States has 

 power, and it is made its duty, to guarantee a 

 republican form of government to each State, 

 if upon observation we find, as I think we do 

 find in Delaware, in Kentucky, in Maryland, 

 in Ohio, and in Pennsylvania, that the govern- 

 ments are not republican, it becomes our duty 

 to exercise the power vested in us by the Con- 

 stitution and make those governments repub- 

 lican by law." 



Mr. Jones, of Kentucky, said: "I would like 

 to ask the gentleman a question just here. I 

 would ask if he holds that the Constitution of 

 the United States prohibits any State from 

 regulating the right of suffrage ? And if so, I 

 ask the gentleman how he construes the tenth 

 amendment to the Constitution of the United 

 States, which, I believe, was suggested by his 

 own State of Massachusetts? I think, when 

 Massachusetts met in State convention to ratify 

 the Constitution of the United States, she in- 

 structed her delegates not to cease their efforts 

 in the Federal Convention until they had ob- 

 tained that amendment, which I will read : 



The powers not delegated to the United States by 

 the Constitution*, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 

 reserved to the States respectively or to the people. 



"My question is, does the Constitution pro- 

 hibit the States from regulating the matter of 

 suffrage ? " 



Mr. Boutwell: "There is a power recog- 

 nized in the States by the fourth section of the 

 first article, and there is a power in the same 

 section granted to the General Government, 

 concerning the matter of elections; and the 

 tenth amendment to the Constitution, to which 

 the gentleman refers, does not touch this case 

 at all. The power given to the States to reg- 

 ulate the time, places, and manner of holding 

 elections is a specified and distinct power, and 

 it is not disturbed by the tenth amendment. 

 The power given to Congress in the same ar- 

 ticle to alter those State regulations is a spe- 

 cific power also, and that is not touched by the 

 tenth amendment to the Constitution. 



"I leave now that portion of my argument 

 based upon the guarantee clause, and proceed 

 to the consideration of the fourteenth amend- 

 ment to the Constitution of the United States. 

 If there were any doubt remaining in the mind 

 of any person as to the power of Congress over 

 this whole subject, as derived from the three 

 provisions of the original text of the Constitu- 

 tion to which I have referred, I believe that 

 every doubt must disappear upon an analysis 

 of the fourteenth amendment. The first clause 

 of the first section is in these words : 



All persons born or naturalized in the United 

 States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are 

 citizens of the United States and of the States wliere- 

 in they reside. 



" Mark the words ! Then comes the inhibi- 

 tion on the States : 



No State shall make or enforce any law which 

 shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens 

 of the United States. 



"By the first clause citizens of the United 

 States are citizens of the States in which they 

 reside. One of the immunities, then, and privi- 

 leges of a citizen of the United States is that 

 he shall be a citizen of the State where he re- 

 sides, and the inhibition applies as well to the 

 deprivation of rights derived directly from the 

 States as to those rights derived directly from 

 the United States Government. It is a com- 

 prehensive inhibition upon the States. They 

 cannot deprive a citizen of the United States 

 of any privilege or immunity which he may 

 enjoy as a citizen of the United States ; they 

 cannot deprive him of any privilege or immu- 

 nity which he may enjoy, or which any other 

 citizen may enjoy, as a citizen of the State in 

 which he resides. This declaration in refer- 

 ence to the rights of citizens is for all or it is 

 for nobody. We have certain privileges in 

 this House, the two chief of which are, first, 

 privilege from arrest in certain cases during 

 the sessions and while travelling to and from 

 our respective residences; and the other is, 

 that we are not held answerable elsewhere for 

 any thing that we may say here. 



" Mr. Speaker, consider what is covered by 

 the word * privileged,' as used in the Constitu- 

 tion, not interpolated by me for the purpose 

 of this debate. The rights to which I have 

 referred are declared to be the privileges of 

 members of the Senate and of the House of 

 Representatives. They are distinctions by 

 which, under the Constitution, we are recog- 

 nized and set apart from other men. They are 

 privileges, in the language of the lexicogra- 

 phers, ' peculiar benefits, advantages, immuni- 

 ties.' They are for all of us equally. "We are 

 characterized in the Constitution as ' members.' 

 We are as members endowed with certain 

 privileges, and under that provision of the 

 Constitution we are peers. What are the 

 privileges under the Constitution of one mem- 

 ber are the privileges of every other member. 

 When you have established the right of one 

 member here to the benefit of these privileges, 

 you have established the right of all the mem- 

 bers of the House to the same privileges. 



"Now, what is the language of the section 

 which I am considering ? 



No State shall make or enforce any law which 

 shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens 

 of the United States. 



" I inquire how are you to distinguish be- 

 tween the various classes of persons in the 

 several States ? By the first clause of this sec- 

 tion 'all persons born or naturalized in the 

 United States are citizens of the United States.' 

 They may have been born in Africa, in Den- 

 mark, in Ireland; they may be white, they 

 may be black; but by the Constitution they 

 are citizens of the United States, and by that 



