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

1. 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.

It is thus forever proclaimed, in unmistakable terms, that to vote is a right of citizens of the United States.

Were it an immunity, or even were it a privilege, to vote, those who possess it could not be deprived of it by any State, for the State is bound to protect every citizen within its jurisdiction in the exercise thereof. It being declared by the XV. Amendment that citizens of the United States have the right to vote, the next step to determine is, Who are citizens? This is also definitely, though for the first time, determined by Article XIV. of Amendments to the Constitution as follows:

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.