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CHAPTER I.

CITIZENSHIP AND SUFFRAGE.

There are two kinds of citizenship under our political system of government, federal and state,1 and suffrage is an attribute of the latter, exercisable in each state under the conditions and qualifications imposed by its constitution. The only restriction on the power of the state to prescribe these conditions is that imposed by the fif teenth amendment to the constitution of the United

1. United States v. Cruikshank, 2 Otto Sup. Ct. Rp., 542. The Slaughter House Cases, 16 Wall. U. S. By Miller, J., “It is quite clear that there is a citizenship of the United States and a citizenship of the State."

In re Wehlitz, 16 Wisconsin, 463. In this case it was held that, under our system of government, there may be a citizen of a state who is not a citizen of the United States in the full sense of the term; that each state being sovereign, except as to matters referred to the general government, may, as the result of that sovereignty, confer the rights of citizenship upon whomsoever it pleases, so far as to make him a citizen of that state, though he will not thereby become a citizen of the United States. This kind of citizenship is confined to the boundaries of the state, and gives no rights or privileges in other states beyond those secured by the laws of nations and the comity of states. It is proper to add that, since the adoption of the fifteenth amendment, this kind of citizenship can only exist in the case of unnaturalized aliens, as the amendment makes all persons born in the United States, and all naturalized persons, citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.

Dred Scott, Etc., 19 Howard U. S. Rep., 405. Held, that the several states have not, by adopting the constitution, surrendered the power of conferring the privileges of their own citizenship upon an alien or any one they think proper.

States, which provides that the conditions shall not be based on considerations of race, color, or previous servitude. The state remains free to prescribe such qualifications for suffrage as it may please, provided they apply equally to persons of all races and colors.1

Everyone born within the United States or naturalized is a citizen of the United States and of the state in which he resides,2 but he cannot vote until he has acquired the qualifications prescribed by the constitution of the state in which he is at the time of an election, and there are still rights pertaining to state citizenship distinct from those within the meaning of the fifteenth amendment to the United States constitution. While every native born citizen of a state is a citizen of the

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1. United States v. Reese et al., 2 Otto U. S. Sup. Ct. Reps. ; Anderson

Baker et al., 23 Maryland, 531; Sprague v. Houghton, 3 Ill., 377.

2. Fourteenth amendment to United States Constitution.

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3. Cully v. Balt. & O. R. R., 1 Hughes U. S. C. C. Reps., 536. Speaking of the fifteenth amendment to the United States constitution, the court says: "Now what does it say? 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 where they reside.' That makes them citi'No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.' Now the Supreme Court has held-and these decisions have all been since I decided the case to which I have referred-in the case of the United States v. Reese et al., and The Slaugthter House Cases (16 Wallace U. S. S. C., 36,) that this article of the constitution only protected such rights as belonged to a citizen of the United States. * * * The Supreme Court (and that was a case that came up under this very section) held then, that the first clause of the fourteenth article was primarily intended to confer citizenship on all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and to declare them citizens of the United States, and it recognized the distinction between citizens of a state and citizens of the United States."

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United States for the purpose of suing and being sued in the federal courts,1 and while it has been held that a citizen of the United States is a citizen of the state in which he has his domicil, for the same purpose, it is not true that he is, because of his United States citizenship, a citizen of the state for the purpose of voting. Each government-federal and state-is distinct from the other, and has citizens of its own, who owe it allegiance, and whose rights, within its jurisdiction, it must respect. Though the citizen of the United States is a citizen of the state, his rights under each are different: the United States can only grant or secure those within its jurisdiction; all others are left to the protection of the states. Nor does naturalization confer, of itself, the right to vote. A naturalized citizen of the United States is, as we have seen, made a citizen of the state in which he resides, by the fourteenth amendment to the federal constitution, but he is not entitled to suffrage until he has acquired a voting residence and the other qualifications prescribed in the particular state. On the other hand, naturalization is not essential to the frage, unless the constitution of the state makes it so.4

1. Story on the Constitution, ? 1687.

2. 6 Peters U. S. Sup. Ct. Rep., 761.

3. U. S. v. Cruikshank, 2 Otto Sup. Ct. Rep., 542.

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4. Spragin v. Houghton, 3 Scam. (Ill.) Rep., 377. The Court says: "The first paragraph of the second article of the constitution of the United States declares that the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the numerous branch of the state legislature. This is alone applicable to the choice of members of the house of representatives of the United States, and is regulated, of course, by the qualifications pre

In some of the states the right to vote is by description given to citizens of the United States, who have acquired the requisite legal residence in the state, but in others mere inhabitancy for a specified time is sufficient to confer the right of suffrage. From this power of the states to make all persons within their limits voters, without regard to whether they are aliens or not, important consequences flow. The state may confer the right to vote without necessarily making those upon whom it is conferred citizens of the state even,1 and yet, such voter can participate in all the elections, of federal as well as state officers. 2

scribed by the state laws for the qualifications of its voters in the choice of its representatives in its own legislature. The qualification which the voter is required to possess in a congressional election depends entirely on the laws of the state in which the elective franchise is exercised, and is purely dependent on the municipal regulations of the state. The constitution of the United States in this particular is wholly subordinate to the legislative will of the state; whatever it prescribes is adopted as the qualification for the voter for member of congress. In speaking of this provision of the constitution of the United States, the fifty-second number of The Federalist, written by Mr. Madison, contains the following just comments: 'To have reduced the different qualifications in the different states to one uniform rule would probably have been as dissatisfactory to some of the States as it would have been difficult to the convention. The provision made by the convention appears, therefore, to be the best that lay within their option.""

Since this decision was rendered the Illinois constitution has been changed.

19 Howard U. S. Reps., 402.

1. 19 Howards U. S. Reps., 422.

2. In re Wehlitz, 16 Wis., 575. "It is also worthy of remark that, although the state cannot make such persons (aliens) full citizens of the United States, yet by making them electors of the state, it gives them an equal voice with any other citizen in choosing senators and representatives in congress, and also in choosing the president and vice president of the

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