Page:Democratic Ideals (Olympia Brown).djvu/115

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Federal Suffrage Circular


Fourteenth Amendment did not make women citizens, because they had always been citizens. The case has no bearing on our claim save that it decided for all time that women are citizens and entitled to the "privileges and immunities" of citizenship. The Supreme Court has three times ruled that citizenship and suffrage are inseparable. Before the negro was made a citizen it was ruled that the negro, not being a citizen, could not be a voter. After the Fourteenth Amendment made him a citizen it was ruled in two cases that, being a citizen, he was now a voter. If citizenship gives suffrage to the negro and does not to the woman, then his citizenship is grander and more inclusive than hers.

Qualifications for Electors.

Article I, Section 2, says: 'The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature." This does not give the State the right to make sex a qualification, for it cannot be a qualification. The Federal Bill provides that women shall be subject to the same qualifications as men.

Congress Has Power to Protect Citizens in Their Right to Vote.

The Constitution further provides that Congress may at any time by law make regulations for time, place and manner of holding