The Origin, Tendencies and Principles of Government / A review of the rise and fall of nations from early historic time to the present; with special considerations regarding the future of the United States as the representative government of the world and the form of administration which will secure this consummation. Also, papers on human equality, as represented by labor and its representative, money; and the meaning and significance of life from a scientific standpoint, with its prophecies for the great future.

by Victoria C. Woodhull

ARTICLE XIV.

1. 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 enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The next point of inquiry is, How is it that the State laws which formerly did proscribe women and exclude them from the exercise of suffrage, no longer do so? Simply and effectively by this fact, that, by the adoption of the XV. Article of Amendments to the Constitution, the States established, as the “SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND,” the fact that no person born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof shall be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, of the RIGHT TO VOTE.

Women are citizens of the United States; and the States themselves, by their own voluntary act, have established the fact of their citizenship, and confirmed their right to vote, which, by such action, has become the supreme law of the land, which supersedes, annuls and abrogates all previous State laws inconsistent therewith or contravening the same. The XV. Article of Amendments to the Constitution is as much a part of it as any originally adopted; for Art VI., ¶ 2, says:

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be THE SUPREME law of THE LAND; and the judges in EVERY State shall BE BOUND THEREBY; anything in the Constitution or laws OF ANY State TO THE CONTRARY NOTWITHSTANDING.

The XV. Amendment was adopted by the several States as a legislative enactment by their Legislatures, under Art V., which provides:

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution; or, on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths thereof as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress, provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, shall, in any manner, affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; AND THAT NO STATE, WITHOUT ITS CONSENT, SHALL BE DEPRIVED OF ITS EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN THE SENATE.

Since, therefore, all citizens have the RIGHT TO VOTE under this act or participation by the Legislatures of the several States, all State Laws which abridge the right are inoperative, null and void, and the exclusion of women who are citizens from the right to vote, was repealed and must stand repealed until the Legislatures of the several States shall again pass an act positively excluding her. If we again examine Art XV. we shall see that this right shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of RACE, COLOR, or PREVIOUS CONDITION OF SERVITUDE; it is left to be inferred that it might be on account of SEX, but this denial has not yet been attempted, nor could it be accomplished if it were, for here the XIV. Amendment again comes to our relief saying, “That no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.”

Again, the Constitution is assuredly a contract between States and citizens, and Sec. 10, Art I., provides that no State shall pass any law impairing contracts.

Art I., Sec. 4,¶ I, provides that:

“The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each State, by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators,” while the judiciary of the United States has acquired complete jurisdiction over this matter by the authority of Art III., Sec. 2,¶ 1, which provides that: “The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority.”

And for all these reasons, the State Legislatures having, by the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, abrogated all previously existing, conflicting laws on the subject of suffrage, are now forever precluded by the Fourteenth Amendment from re-establishing any restriction to apply to women, whom the authorities of the United States, in their support of the Constitution, are in duty bound to protect in their right to vote.

Now what was the fruit of the late war, which threw the entire nation into such convulsive throes, unless it is found in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, namely: that grand change in the fundamental laws which declares who are citizens and what are their rights, privileges and immunities, which cannot be abridged? Will any one pretend that these great enactments can be understood to mean less than the language thereof plainly conveys? Or will any one claim that the old, absurd State laws, which were sunk in oblivion by the adoption of these amendments to the Constitution, are still in force? Who will dare to say, in the face of these plainly worded amendments, which have such an unmistakable meaning, that the women of America shall not enjoy their emancipation as well as the black slave?

Women have the right to vote! It is the duty of the Government to see that they are not denied the right to exercise it, and, to secure the necessary action of Congress in the premises, I did, on the 21st day of December, 1870, memorialize Congress as recorded in the Congressional Globe, December 22, 1870.

In the Senate:

Mr. Harris presented the memorial of Victoria C. Woodhull, praying for the passage of such laws as may be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the right vested by the Constitution in the citizens of the United States to vote without regard to sex; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed.

In the House:

Mr. Julian—I ask unanimous consent to present at this time and have printed in the Globe the memorial of Victoria C. Woodhull, claiming the right of suffrage under the XIV. and XV. Articles of Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and asking for the enactment of the necessary and appropriate legislation to guarantee the exercise of that right to the women of the United States. I also ask that the petition be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

No objection was made, and it was ordered accordingly.

The petition is as follows: